COURTS
For the judiciary to serve its fundamental role in our constitutional system, the courts need the freedom to make decisions according to the law, without regard to political or public pressure. Individuals must be able to access the courts on a fair and equal basis. We must protect judicial independence and meaningful access to the courts while promoting judicial accountability. The ability of the courts to render impartial verdicts depends on judges who are able to keep themselves above the political fray, ruling based upon the law without swaying to popular fervor or political pressure.
Efforts to politicize federal and state judicial selection processes are increasing around the country, and campaign contributions to state court judges and candidates by litigants and their lawyers are escalating, raising concerns about fairness and impartiality. Attacks on judges for unpopular decisions, even when those decisions are a good faith interpretation of the law, have become rampant. Moreover, court systems are frequently at the mercy of the executive and legislative branches for the funding they need to carry out their legislative duties.
Our courts face further hurdles in meager budgets and diminishing financial support. In recent years, funding shortages have forced states to close courthouse doors, eliminate key supplemental programs, reduce the number of judges and court staff and decrease the number and quality of services for those with special needs, including foreign-language and sign-language interpreters. Legislatures need to ensure that courts have appropriate levels of funding so that their partners in governance can fulfill their constitutional obligations and ensure that all individuals have meaningful access to justice.
Politicians, both federal and state, are responding to unpopular decisions and litigants by attempting to strip the courts of their powers over certain kinds of cases. And at the federal level, judicial appointments are often shadowed by biased selection and delayed under the pressure of political rivalries, threatening to hold justice hostage. We must reverse this troubling trend towards the politicization of the courts and reaffirm the judicial independence that is so vital to our constitutional system.
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