Judge candidates asked to stay quiet on legal, political issues

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The state's top jurist is urging candidates seeking judgeships not to campaign on political or legal issues.

Chief Justice Michael Wolff said the only campaign promises judges should make is to decide their cases fairly and always follow the law. He said unlike political candidates, judges are handcuffed by the law and their opinions on issues don't really matter.

"Be wary of judicial candidates who take positions on issues, because they cannot deliver on their promises," Wolf wrote in a column distributed this week. "Answers to issues questionnaires or any campaign promises are not likely to tell you anything useful about how a judge will decide a case."

Instead, he said judges should be evaluated for their character and their legal experience.

The issue of what judges can and should say while on the campaign trail is not new. The Missouri Code of Judicial Ethics once explicitly barred discussion about legal and political issues likely to come before the court.

But in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Republican Party and a three-time judicial candidate and found that a similar Minnesota law violated candidates' free speech rights. Citing the ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court changed the ethics code to allow judges running in partisan elections to say whatever they wanted, while keeping in place the existing prohibitions for retention vote elections unless there is an organized campaign against one of those judges.

While the changes opened the door to discussions about controversial topics such as abortion and the death penalty, the ethics code requires judges who state their opinion on issues to recuse themselves from cases that involve those issues.

Most of Missouri's judges run under political party labels, just like candidates for most county offices, the Legislature or governor.

The process for selecting appellate courts judges and trial judges in the state's largest metropolitan areas is different. They're appointed by the governor from a pool of three candidates and face a periodic retention election.

Wolff said despite joining a political party and facing the voters, judges are different from other elected officials.

He contrasted a lawmaker or governor who is responsible for setting and carrying out public policy decisions to judges who are expected to interpret and apply the law regardless of their opinion of it.

"When an issue comes before a court, do you want your case to be decided by someone who already has announced his or her position on the matter during a campaign? Or would you rather have the opportunity to present the facts, issues and law as you see them before the judge makes a decision?" he wrote.

Fifty-four circuit judge positions are up for election this fall, with 18 contested races.

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On the Net:

Missouri Judiciary: http://www.courts.mo.gov