No politicking for Utah judges

It's a rivalry that spans back to the creation of the U.S. Constitution. For generations, the relationship between judges and legislators often has been marked with contention.

After all, the role of judges is to review the laws crafted by lawmakers to determine if they are constitutional — and unpopular rulings from the bench often spark cries to restrain activist judges.

Utah is just one of 16 states that has a system for retaining or booting judges that attempts to insulate the judiciary from politics by not forcing them to hit the campaign trail.

Instead of selecting judicial candidates in contested elections, Utah voters next month will decide to "retain" judges in their district and don't have the option of picking from a field of hopefuls.

Proponents say there's a good reason for this.

In 2000, an estimated $45 million was given out in campaign funds for supreme court justices in states that have contested elections, according to Tim Shea with the Utah Administrative Office of the Courts. In 2004 that number swelled to $48 million, Shea said. In one Supreme Court race in Illinois, campaign contributions hit $9.4 million.

"The issue is, is justice for sale?" said Jesse Rutledge, a spokesman for a judiciary watchdog group. "We ask judges to be accountable to the law and the Constitution, not to partisan politics and special interest groups."

Rutledge, a spokesman for The Justice at Stake Campaign, a Washington D.C.-based group that monitors courts for fairness and partiality, said studies have shown that just the simple act of receiving campaign funds causes the public to assume judges are influenced.

"The big difference is that those states now have campaigns that look and feel much like a campaign for any other office."

Utah selects its judges through a complex system involving input from the governor to the state Senate and ending with the non-contested public retention vote at the end of a judge's term.

Up for retention this year are two Utah Supreme Court justices, Ronald Nehring and Jill Parrish, 24 district judges and 38 justice court judges.

Both top court officials and the state's legislative leaders agree that in Utah, when it comes to judging judges, the system here strikes a balance between public accountability and insulation from political influence.

"I don't have any overwhelming concerns," said Speaker of the House Greg Curtis, R-Sandy.