Governor Fights to Reform 'Broken' Judicial Nomination Process
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, the first Republican to hold the seat in 16 years, does not want to miss a rare opportunity to reform his state’s judicial process.
In Montana, judges are chosen by voters — Supreme Court justices serve eight-year terms, and district judges serve six-year terms — and incumbents usually win. But in the case of a vacancy, the governor has the power to appoint someone to serve out the remainder of the term, after they are confirmed by the state Senate.
Now, Gianforte and state Republicans want to fix what they think is a “rigged” system of filling judicial vacancies. Last month, Gianforte signed Senate Bill 140 into law, ending the current “Judicial Nominating Commission,” which since 1973 has had the sole power to recommend a list of vacancy candidates to the governor.
“In practice, it was stacked with trial lawyers,” Gianforte said of the commission. “The governor could only appoint interim judges from a list that, in practice, was just three names, and they only produced liberal trial lawyers. So we worked with the legislature to put a fair process in that actually matches the way we appoint judges at the federal level for the Supreme Court.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/montana-governor-fights-to-reform-broken-judicial-nomination-process/ar-BB1gjujT
Translation: I want to put my own cronies on the court.
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