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The Futile Quest For A System Of Judicial “Merit” Selection, Michael R. Dimino
The Futile Quest For A System Of Judicial “Merit” Selection, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
Others have discussed exhaustively the merits and demerits of merit selection, and I do not intend in this essay to debate the success or failure, per se, of merit selection since its introduction in Missouri in 1940. Instead, I wish to discuss the effect merit selection has on squelching public debate about the judiciary. Once that effect is demonstrated, I then wish to assess this antidemocratic tendency against the purported goal of merit selection: maintaining some measure of accountability in a selection system nonetheless designed to make judges confident enough in their independence to render decisions according to the law …