It should come as no surprise to any of us who have followed politics for a number of years that Attorney General Bob McDonnell from the time he was a delegate has been a strong proponent of merit-based judicial selection.
Back in 2000, it was McDonnell who proposed a 27-member panel that would conduct evaluations of judges, ensuring accountability and objectivity in the re-appointment and selection process.
In 2004, McDonnell strongly advocated again for the evaluation process when Del. Brian Moran (D-Alexandria) was trying to create a mysterious wedge issue amongst African-Americans:
Del. Brian J. Moran, D-Alexandria and the Democratic Caucus Chair, told members of the state’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, that recent Republican judicial decisions have been discriminatory, “whether they intended it to be or not.” (Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 24, 2004)
Moran said this despite judges going from 10.5% to 11.5% African-American under Republican majorities.
However, McDonnell appropriately replied, “We are committed to doing the right thing….We’re committed to having a fair and impartial process.” According to the Pilot, McDonnell continued to state that “merit-based evaluations are the best way to diminish judicial disagreements and to objectively and fairly decide on reappointments.”
And, most recently in 2008, the Attorney General applauded the new Judicial Performance Evaluation (JPE) program, approved by the then Republican-led General Assembly in 2005, which goes into effect next year.
From the Bristol Herald-Courier on Apr. 1:
Then a Republican delegate from Virginia Beach, McDonnell in 2000 proposed legislation to create the performance evaluation program that will bear its first fruits next year, when evaluations on seven judges up for reappointment will be sent to the General Assembly. McDonnell, who touts the program as one of his proudest legislative achievements, believes it will curb the influence of politics in judicial reappointments by ramping up the pressure on lawmakers to vote according to a candidate’s merits.
It will make it “difficult, if not politically impossible,” for a single legislator to hold up the nomination of a judge deemed qualified – a common occurrence, according to a senior researcher in the Division of Legislative Services.
“It certainly won’t look good in the court of public opinion,” McDonnell said.
So, while we look at Sen. Deeds, Del. Moran, and Sen. Yvonne Miller playing politics with judicial selections here in 2008, we see history on the side of Republicans, in particular AG McDonnell, at creating an ethical, unbiased, and standardized way to selecting and evaluating judicial appointees.
Something to perhaps keep in mind in 2009.
Update: The Deeds for Virginia campaign has pointed out to Bearing Drift that then Del. Deeds also sponsored legislation in 2000 that created a “fifteen-member (with a minimum of one member from each congressional district) statewide Judicial Nominations Commission, elected by the General Assembly, to recommend appellate judicial candidates to the General Assembly and the Governor. The bill requires that five members be attorneys and 10 members be citizens who have never been licensed to practice law.”
The goal of this legislation was to also make the selection process merit-based. However, it appears that the legislation was “continued” to 2001, effectively killing the bill.
