The Plan of the Government and Politicians to Destroy the
Constitution~Put Their Manipulated Judges in and Create Fascism~e.g.
Stolen Elections.....
~~favorable rulings.......as in V. P. Scandal swept under the
rug...nothing before the election.......
~~~
(<>) Date: Sat, Oct
9, 2004, 7:31pm (EDT-3) To:
(www.jail4judges.org) Subject: Amendment A -- Bad News For South Dakota
J.A.I.L. News Journal
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October 9, 2004
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Amendment A -- Bad News For South Dakota
It must be opposed in November
Backroom Selection Plan Makes Judges Unaccountable to the People
South Dakota Gun Owners E-mail Alert
PO Box 3845, Rapid City, SD=A0 57709
(605) 737-5583
LibertyTeeth@sdgo.org=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 http://www.SDGO.org
(October 8, 2004) =96 Two State's Attorneys have issued a statement
revealing the truth about what Amendment A proponents call the "merit
selection of judges," but what is more accurately described as backroom
selection.
=A0"Constitutional Amendment A will permanently take away the right of
the people of South Dakota to elect Circuit Court Judges," State's
Attorneys Lance Russell and John Fitzgerald said.=A0 "It will eliminate
the check on the judiciary...put in place to keep elitists from having
unfettered discretion to dictate their will on the people."=A0 (Scroll
down to read the entire statement.)
=A0Currently, circuit-court judges are elected by the people of South
Dakota.=A0 If Amendment A becomes law, state judges will be appointed by
the governor from a pool of candidates chosen by a bureaucratic
commission composed of five lawyers and two gubernatorial appointees.=A0
=A0Five of the seven commission members must also be members of the
State Bar Association, and three of them are directly appointed by the
Bar President.=A0 In its structure and function, the Bar Association is
strikingly similar to a special interest group, and is arguably one of
the most powerful entities in South Dakota.=A0
Proponents are hailing Amendment A as the remedy for a "broken
system."=A0 But the dangers of consolidating all judicial selection into
the hands of a few unelected lawyers make their solution far worse than
the supposed problem.=A0 Under Amendment A, the governor may appoint
only candidates selected by the commission, which is largely controlled
by the Bar Association.=A0
Action:
The State Bar Association has raised more than $20,000 for the purpose
of passing Amendment A.=A0 The rumor is that they are planning a media
blitz just before the election.
=A0Please consider writing a short letter to the editor. =A0You can use
the facts given below, as well as the attached statement from State's
Attorneys Russell and Fitzgerald.=A0 You may want to submit your letter
to the Rapid City Journal and Sioux Falls Argus Leader, as well as to
your local paper.=A0
=A0Rapid City Journal,
Box 450, Rapid City, SD 57709.
Fax: (605) 394-8463.
E-mail to:
Letters are limited to 200 words and must include full name, address and
phone number. Phone: 394-8427. The deadline for election letters is Oct.
19.
=A0Argus Leader
Letters to the Editor
P.O. Box 5034
Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5034
Fax: (605) 331-2294
Email: =A0editor@argusleader.com
http://www.argusleader.com/help/letter.shtml
Letters are limited to 200 words and must include full name, address and
phone number.
Facts about Amendment A
**Amendment A will permanently destroy the right of the people to elect
any circuit court judge.
=A0**If Amendment A is adopted, almost all state judge candidates will
be selected by an unelected "judicial qualifications" commission and
then appointed by the governor.
**The bureaucratic judicial commission is primarily controlled by the
State Bar Association.=A0 Five of the seven commission members must be
members of the Bar Association, and three of those five must be
appointed by the Bar president.=A0 The State Bar Association is largely
unaccountable to the people of South Dakota.
**The only safeguard Amendment A offers against internal corruption is
the weak retention election.=A0 Three years after appointment, each
judge would be subject to an election in which he faces no opponent.=A0
**Retention elections are notorious for retaining the current judge.=A0
In retention election states, almost 99 percent of the judges are
retained.=A0 In the unusual case that a judge is voted out of office,
the replacement is chosen by the same bureaucratic commission.
**Currently in South Dakota, circuit court judge candidates run in an
open public election every eight years.=A0 Only when an office is
vacated in midterm are candidates exclusively chosen by the bureaucratic
judicial commission.
**Proponents claim that Amendment A will keep politics out of the judge
selection process.=A0 But in states like Missouri, the first state to
adopt the backroom selection system, the politics and power of judicial
selection have simply moved from the people to the lawyers.
**Politics will always play at least some part in judicial election.=A0
The real question is whether they will be the open politics of public
election, or the closed-doors, backroom politics of the bench and the
bar.
=A0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT A:
THE ELIMINATION OF A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
By Lance Russell, Fall River County State's Attorney and
John Fitzgerald, Lawrence County State's Attorney=A0
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Constitutional Amendment A will
permanently take away the right of the people of South Dakota to elect
Circuit Court Judges.=A0 This is a right we have enjoyed since
statehood.
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 States have different methods of
selecting judges.=A0 Some have partisan elections, some have nonpartisan
elections and some have nominating commissions with the governors making
the final decision followed by retention elections.
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Why should South Dakotans care?=A0
Well, there is a movement to amend the state constitution, eliminating
contested nonpartisan judicial elections and allowing the governor to
appoint circuit court judges from a list of two or more individuals
selected by a commission consisting predominantly of lawyers.=A0 Three
years after the appointment, there will be a "retention" election, where
the ballot will ask the voter, yes or no, if they want to retain the
judge.=A0=A0=A0
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 What's the problem with that?=A0 The
amendment changes the intent of the framers of our state constitution
and will make our judges unaccountable.=A0
South Dakota was founded on the principles of populism and
accountability.=A0 South Dakota was the first state to allow the people
the power of initiative and referendum, and our constitution gave the
people the right to elect our judges.=A0 In fact, every state entering
the Union between 1846 and 1912 provided for judicial elections.=A0 This
was a reaction to the feeling that the appointed judiciary had become "a
bastion of unresponsive aristocracy" and that elected judges would be
more independent and less apt to be influenced by the politics and
cronyism of governors.=A0=A0=A0
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 How will the amendment make our
judges unaccountable?=A0 Simply put:=A0 the people of our state will
have little say in who are their judges.=A0 It will eliminate the check
on the judiciary that the framers of our constitution put in place to
keep elitists from having unfettered discretion to dictate their will on
the people.=A0 Proponents of the constitutional amendment will counter
that the retention election will be an adequate check on the discretion
of the judiciary; however, retention elections have proved to be nothing
more than sham elections in other states.=A0 Retention elections are
just that=97they retain incumbents.=A0 In retention election states,
almost 99 percent of the judges are retained.=A0 We all know in
countries where there are only one political party, they have
essentially retention elections.=A0 Those elections also allowed for
only one choice, and just like retention elections, are noted for low
voter interest, knowledge and turnout.=A0
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 The bottom line is the proponents of
Amendment A are attempting to take away a constitutional right=97the
right of the people to meaningfully participate in judicial
selection.=A0
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Who are the proponents of retention
elections?=A0 Lawyers.=A0 They have already raised in excess of $20,000
to secure its passage.=A0 Why lawyers?=A0 Because the lawyers will be
selecting the pool of candidates from which judges will be appointed.=A0
The proponents will say whom better than the lawyers to evaluate the
abilities of judicial candidates?=A0 We say the people.
We believe the people have the intelligence to evaluate
the qualifications of judicial candidates, and more importantly, they
don't have an financial interest in who is chosen.=A0
The proponents will also say that the retention system
will take the politics out of the judicial selections.=A0 However, in
Missouri, the first state to adopt the retention system, it has been
asserted that the personal injury lawyers have succeeded in gaining
control of the politics of the state, including the politics of the
judicial nominating commission, and because of that Missouri is one of
the favorite plaintiff's venue in America.=A0 If the retention system is
adopted in South Dakota, the politics and power of judicial selection
will simply go from the people to the lawyers, most likely the trial
lawyers.=A0 And, we all know the acrimonious role politics plays in the
selection of Federal judges.=A0 Politics will always be part of the
process, the question is: who do you want making the decisions?=A0
Politicians, lawyers or you?=A0 We believe that the farther the people
are removed from the decision making, the farther the courts spiral out
of control and make poor decisions.
Judges have awesome power and authority.=A0 If a judge
decides=A0to legislate law instead of interpret law=A0the only way to
hold them=A0accountable is an election.=A0 If Amendment
A=A0passes=A0there will be no way=A0for the people=A0whom judges serve
to hold their=A0judges accountable. A whole branch of the government
will be un-elected;=A0no checks and balances will exist in this branch.
The only beneficiaries of the amendment will be un-elected judges.=A0
The election process in South Dakota has produced fine
judges who are both wise and courageous in their decisions.=A0=A0 We are
public servants and we believe it is in South Dakota's best interests to
continue to elect and hold judges accountable the way the drafters of
our constitution envisioned.
=A0J.A.I.L.- Judicial Accountability Initiative Law -
www.jail4judges.org
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minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.." - Samuel Adams
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striking at the
root."=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=
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