The People's Courts : : Pursuing Judicial Independence in America / / Jed Handelsman Shugerman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2012
• VerfasserIn: Shugerman, Jed Handelsman,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2012]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (391 p.) :; 2 line illustrations, 2 graphs, 7 tables

In the United States, almost 90 percent of state judges have to run in popular elections to remain on the bench. In the past decade, this peculiarly American institution has produced vicious multi-million-dollar political election campaigns and high-profile allegations of judicial bias and misconduct. The People's Courts traces the history of judicial elections and Americans' quest for an independent judiciary-one that would ensure fairness for all before the law-from the colonial era to the present.In the aftermath of economic disaster, nineteenth-century reformers embraced popular elections as a way to make politically appointed judges less susceptible to partisan patronage and more independent of the legislative and executive branches of government. This effort to reinforce the separation of powers and limit government succeeded in many ways, but it created new threats to judicial independence and provoked further calls for reform. Merit selection emerged as the most promising means of reducing partisan and financial influence from judicial selection. It too, however, proved vulnerable to pressure from party politics and special interest groups. Yet, as Shugerman concludes, it still has more potential for protecting judicial independence than either political appointment or popular election.The People's Courts shows how Americans have been deeply committed to judicial independence, but that commitment has also been manipulated by special interests. By understanding our history of judicial selection, we can better protect and preserve the independence of judges from political and partisan influence.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: America's Peculiar Institution -- CHAPTER ONE. Declaring Judicial In de pen dence -- CHAPTER TWO. Judicial Challenges in the Early Republic -- CHAPTER THREE. Judicial Elections as Separation of Powers -- CHAPTER FOUR. Panic and Trigger -- CHAPTER FIVE. The American Revolutions of 1848 -- CHAPTER SIX. The Boom in Judicial Review -- CHAPTER SEVEN. Reconstructing Independence -- CHAPTER EIGHT. The Progressives' Failed Solutions -- CHAPTER NINE. The Great Depression, Crime, and the Revival of Appointment -- CHAPTER TEN. The Puzzling Rise of Merit -- CHAPTER ELEVEN. Judicial Plutocracy after 1980 -- Conclusion: Interests, Ideas, and Judicial Independence -- Appendix A: Judicial Elections Timeline -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index