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Louisville Judicial Forum

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

On Thursday, October 12, there was a forum for the judicial candidates in contested elections to speak.  Each candidate was asked questions by a moderator and given a limited amount of time to respond.

Supreme court candidates:

Both Supreme Court candidates McAnulty and Shake said they would apply the law fairly.  McAnulty said a rule change is coming that will address the issue of so many unpublished decisions, and the bar should be happy with it.  When asked about whether judges should be elected or appointed, he said he thought Kentucky should consider moving to appointments with retention elections.  When asked about whether judges should speak out on issues, he said this year’s elections had not become political, but he was concerned about the next round of elections.  He said he hoped a new rule would be developed that would meet constitutional muster.  Shake said her refusal to speak out on the issues has been respected, because people want the perception that a judge is going to be fair. She referred to James Bopp, who was the attorney in some of the free speech cases.  She said Bopp said it would hurt candidates if they refused to speak out on issues, but she thought he was wrong.

 Court of Appeals candidates:

In the Court of Appeals race, when asked what was the biggest issue facing the judiciary, Wine said the judiciary has been under attack.  Judges are said to be either activist or strict constructionist, and the way you can tell which is which is whether they found in your favor or not.  Afterwards, I asked him if that’s really what he thought.  He said there really are some judges who legislate from the bench.  On the other hand, he said sometimes that serves society well, as in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, because “separate but equal” was not right.  His opponent, Green, said he did not see why people were making such a big deal about judges telling people about their personal views, since their personal views were not really relevant to their job.  Their job is to uphold the law.  He said he personally might wish the speed limits were higher but that didn’t mean that, as a judge, he would ignore the laws on speeding, or he might be opposed to the death penalty, but he would still uphold the law.  He refused to sign a pledge not to speak out on issues, saying he refused to sign any pledges, and he said, what’s wrong with people knowing how he feels about an issue as long as he pledges to uphold the law?

The issue of people’s low perceptions of the judiciary was a big part of this forum.  Most of the candidates expressed a healthy attitude, saying they hope that, as they do their jobs well, applying the law fairly to everyone, then the community and the local bar will develop a higher opinion of judges. If judges actually do apply the law fairly rather than trying to be “superlegislators”, judicial races will not become political, and people will have a higher opinion of judges and more faith in the legal system.

The forum will be rebroadcast.  For more detailed information on times and channels, go to http://www.louisvilleky.gov/MetroTV/default.htm for circuit, family and district court races to be shown on Metro TV Channel 25.

The Supreme Court and Court of Appeals races will be shown on Insight ICN 2 on:

• Friday, Oct. 20 at 9:30 pm
• Saturday, Oct. 21 at 4:00 pm
• Sunday, Oct. 22 at 6:00 pm
• Monday, Oct. 23 at 6:30 pm

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