The new Minnesota Chief Justice, Eric Magnuson, sat down with Star Tribune columnist Lori Sturdevant to discuss his first state of the judiciary address. Below is a short quote from the article:
Q A lot of people say Minnesota has good judges now, and “if it isn’t broke, why fix it?”
A There’s no perfect answer [for shielding judicial selection from special-interest and partisan politics]. But if you think there’s not a problem, then you are sticking your head in the sand.
You just look at Wisconsin — right next door, and awful. The last contested election for the state supreme court was everything that we’ve been saying could never happen here. Special-interest groups, attack ads, one-issue campaign themes, really, really brutal. It’s what we want to avoid here.
Read the complete article here: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/20102874.html?page=1&c=y
Here are some other related articles
Chief justice calls for more money for courts system (MPR)- http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/17/judicialbudget/
Chief justice fears negative, expensive judicial elections (WCCO) – http://wcco.com/minnesotawire/22.0.html?type=local&state=MN&category=n&filename=MN–ChiefJustice-Elec.xml
