Nevada Judges One Step Closer to Being Appointed

The Nevada Legislature is on their way to providing for Judge Appointment, Retention Elections and Exhaustive Evaluations. Now to the People of Nevada. The Bill passed the Assembly on May 22, 2009 (having previously passed the Senate March 12, 2009). The Bill is now headed to the Secretary of State to be placed on the Ballot in 2010, in order to amend the Nevada Constitution to allow for judicial appointment, retention elections and the evaluations.
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The bill allows for appointment of judges with a retention vote. However, it also provides for a thorough evaluation of each judges' performance. Up to now, the only system to evaluate judges is a collaborative effort with the Clark County Bar Association and the Las Vegas Review Journal. This consists of a survey of attorneys. I fill it out every year, but it is very vague, arbitrary and not even a majority of attorneys fill it out. Not to mention, we don't get the real public's input.

Will this stop the corruption once and for all?? We will likely still have Insiders being appointed and there will in all likelihood be some favors, too. Now only just for the Governor to hand out, though. But here is the key: election war chests can't protect you and an exhaustive evaluation report would sure go a long way. I would suggest that in "retention elections" that judges not be allowed to advertise, not be allowed to promote themselves with campaign contributions and not be allowed to have campaign funds at all. If collection of money and self promotion without oppsotion occurs, we will have solved nothing. Instead, we will have taken away the public's ability to get a competitor on the ballot to challenge and expose the judges' problems, at least some of them. Given the past record, donations, favors, bags of cash, though, are we trading one problem for another? Maybe, just maybe, we are headed in the right direction.
(Go HERE for LA Times past articles on Las Vegas Judicial Corruption...A MUST READ)

Las Vegas Sun Reports on proposed legislation HERE