State's judges not for sale; Big bucks not 'investing' in Arizona bench

Arizona Republic editorial, Nov. 10, 2004

Read it and smile, Arizona.

This state's Supreme Court judges are appointed, not elected. That means we didn't have to read post-election coverage like this from the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia:

"The state's newest Supreme Court justice says he will be an independent thinker and will not be influenced by the estimated $3.5 million spent by a single coal executive on his behalf."

Coal executive Don Blankenship's Massey Energy Co. will have several cases before the West Virginia Supreme Court, according to the Charleston Gazette, "including the company's appeal of a more than $60 million jury verdict against it."

Blankenship says the money he spent on the race was not meant to buy influence.

What would you think, if you lived in West Virginia?

The Associated Press says the race was "one of the nastiest and most expensive judicial races in the nation."

It didn't happen here.

When a case comes before Arizona's Supreme Court, nobody wonders if the judgment was prepaid with campaign contributions. Our Supreme Court justices are appointed from a list of qualified applicants who have been well vettedNone of these judges has to worry about alienating a potential donor over a ruling. None of them has to think about how much money will be needed to finance re-election.

All of them can focus on the law and the individual facts of the case at hand, which is exactly what an independent judiciary is supposed to do.

Arizona's got it. And that's worth celebrating.