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A Response To Professor Fitzpatrick: The Rest Of The Story, Penny White
A Response To Professor Fitzpatrick: The Rest Of The Story, Penny White
UTK Law Faculty Publications
In his essay Election as Appointment: The Tennessee Plan Reconsidered, Professor Brian T. Fitzpatrick contends that Tennessee's selection and retention method for appellate court judges is both unconstitutional and unmeritorious. This Essay responds to those claims. Part I will respond to Professor Fitzpatrick's claim that the Tennessee Plan is unconstitutional; Part II will respond to his claim that the Plan is not fulfilling the purposes which led the Tennessee legislature, in its wisdom, to adopt it.
Election As Appointment: The Tennessee Plan Reconsidered, Brian T. Fitzpatrick
Election As Appointment: The Tennessee Plan Reconsidered, Brian T. Fitzpatrick
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Tennessee's merit system for selecting judges - referred to as the Tennessee Plan - has been controversial ever since it was enacted in 1971 to replace contested elections. The greatest controversy has been whether the Plan is even constitutional. The Tennessee constitution states that all judges "shall be elected by the qualified voters" of the state. Yet, under the Tennessee Plan, the governor appoints all appellate judges, and those judges come before the voters only after a period of time on the bench and only in uncontested yes-no retention referenda. In 1977, the people of Tennessee were asked to amend …
Errors, Omissions, And The Tennessee Plan, Brian T. Fitzpatrick
Errors, Omissions, And The Tennessee Plan, Brian T. Fitzpatrick
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
In the Spring 2008 issue of the Tennessee Law Review, I wrote an essay questioning whether Tennessee's merit system for selecting appellate judges - the Tennessee Plan - satisfies the requirements of the Tennessee Constitution. The Tennessee Constitution requires all judges to be elected by the qualified voters of the state, yet, under the Plan, all appellate judges are initially selected by gubernatorial appointment and then retained in uncontested referenda. I argued that both the appointment and retention features of the Plan are unconstitutional, and I recommended that the legislature refuse to reauthorize the Plan when it expires in June …