Give Utah Senate a vote on state judges?

A few Utah judges are making "terrible decisions" from the bench, says a leading state senator, who will introduce a bill in the 2007 Legislature to allow the Senate to kick a state judge out of office at the end of the jurist's term.

The current judicial retention election, in which citizens vote to keep a judge or not, is inadequate, believes Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan. Every judge "should have to pass a Senate confirmation vote again" when his term comes up, he said.

"That is the only way to make the public aware of some of these terrible decisions. ... I don't know where some of these decisions are coming from. Some judges just go in there and wing it," said Buttars.

Mike Mower, spokesman for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., said Monday the administration hasn't reviewed Buttars' proposal. "However, we are anxious to make sure that the independence of Utah's judiciary is maintained," Mower said.

And, not surprisingly, the judicial branch has a problem with Buttars' idea. "I'd voice a concern over anything that would put at risk the ability of judges to make fair and impartial decisions, without any fear of reprisals from those who might find those decisions unpopular," said Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine M. Durham. "Judges need the freedom to make hard decisions."

She said the appeals process is designed to correct flawed rulings.

Buttars has introduced a number of controversial bills in recent years — including two hot items in the 2006 Legislature: a bill that would have required alternative views of evolution be taught in public schools and the banning of gay-straight alliance student clubs in high schools. Both measures failed.

For four years, Buttars has chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, which routinely holds public hearings on nominees to the bench.

"We have the cream of the crop in judges in this state," said Buttars. And in most cases the Senate would not even hold hearings on judges, just unanimously reconfirm them. But, said Buttars, every year, one or two judges "make a decision that makes no sense" and they need to be held accountable for those.

To deal with those cases, Buttars said, a judge up for a retention vote could be removed from office by a no-confirmation Senate vote, doing away with lengthy and difficult impeachment proceedings that involve extensive hearings and a trial before the body.

At the very least, through public Senate reconfirmation hearings, a judge's poor decision record could be brought to the voters' attention, increasing the likelihood that the judge could be voted out at the ballot box, Buttars said.

The Senate reconfirmation vote would apply to judges at all levels — district court, juvenile court, Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.