The American Spectator

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br> Cut & Shoot, Texas /p>

Read your piece today on the "ongoing constitutional convention." I'm in full agreement (I've actually used that metaphor before, but now can't remember where).

The odd thing is that the states have solved this problem. All but one have ditched lifetime tenure in favor of some form of accountability process: most have elections, some have review committees, and so on.

Yesterday, I traded emails with Ann Althouse (a law blogger), Matthew Franck (a law prof who had an article at NRO) and columnist Bruce Bartlett. The latter two were kind enough to at least take a look at Vote for Judges, where I've been pushing federal-judge retention elections for the last six months. Their responses:

Althouse: "I think retention elections would undermine the court." (To which I replied, "Well, that's the whole point!" She was not amused.)

Franck: "I think we disagree about electing judges, but I do support the elimination of life tenure."

Bartlett: "I don't think I like that. But I might be willing to support something like a supermajority vote in Congress to overturn a Supreme Court decision in certain circumstances."

I've come to think there are too few people in this wilderness to make a difference, and will probably put Vote for Judges to sleep soon. I think that's a shame. Retention elections are an elegant solution to rogue judges: the threat of public intervention helps keep judges honest; when they go off the reservation, they can be gotten rid of (as in 1986 in California, with the chief justice and two associate justices deposed over the death penalty; one justice deposed in Tennessee in 1996 for the same reason); and the referendum nature of the elections will keep them fairly civil most of the time.

p>But I've found no support for it. I'm not sure what it'll take to trigger your pitchfork scenario. br> -- Karl Maher br> Vote for Judges /p>

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