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How to stop activist judgesAS A TEXAS ATTORNEY who went to law school in Boston, I am aware of the tendency of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to engage in judicial activism, whether it be overturning death penalty laws or instituting gay marriage by judicial fiat. In Texas such things do not happen because appellate judges are accountable to the voters every six years, which serves to rein in judges who want to be legislators in black robes.
Massachusetts judges are not subject to any standards of accountability as they are appointed for life, for all intents and purposes, and cannot be removed from office unless convicted of a serious crime or under some unusual circumstances. Some commentators have claimed that appointment of judges is a better system than election of judges, though I have seen no evidence to support such claims. It is well known that the chances of a conservative attorney being appointed to the SJC or the Massachusetts Court of Appeals for the last 30 years or so are slim and none, especially if the attorney is an Anglo male or, God forbid, a conservative Christian Republican. I would urge the people of Massachusetts to demand that they be given the same right to elect their judges that they have to elect their legislators, senators, congressmen, US senators, and president. STEVE MANSFIELD Houston © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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