Bickering in Va. General Assembly Leaves Judicial Posts Open

For years, legal experts have debated whether to change the way judges are appointed in Virginia.

But although various commissions have studied the issue, most defend the Virginia system as better than the others. Many are particularly opposed to allowing judges to run for office because they would ask for campaign contributions and be questioned about where they stand on specific issues.

"It's a stupid, disastrous system that makes them political candidates," said Del. William R. Janis (R-Goochland), the House's negotiator on judicial selections this year.

But Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), some legislators and others say they want to change the system so that candidates are vetted by an independent commission and chosen on merit and not on other factors, such as whom they know.

In 2005, legislators filled an opening on the state Court of Appeals with Stafford Circuit Court Judge James W. Haley Jr. over Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge R. Terrence Ney, the choice of a bipartisan group of Northern Virginia legislators. Haley, a law school roommate of House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), was supported by Howell and then-Sen. John H. Chichester (R-Northumberland), the powerful Senate president and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

"The selection of judges in Virginia is highly superior to what most states do," Kaine said. "But we can make it better, and this year definitely showed that."

In some parts of the state, the local bar or a citizens review panel interviews and vets lawyers interested in serving as judges, sending a list of recommendations to local legislators. But in other parts of the state, that does not happen.

Many legislators want to duplicate the work of the Fairfax Bar Association, which for years has screened applicants and sent reviews to local legislators. Daniel H. Ruttenberg, president of the Fairfax Bar Association's board of directors, said legislators give considerable weight to the recommendations.

After local legislators agree on candidates, the list must be approved by each chamber's Courts of Justice Committee before the entire legislature can vote.

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said the state needs to modify the system to "reduce politics and partisanship, which are bad for the General Assembly, courts and the public."

He and others say they would prefer a uniform, independent way of reviewing candidates from across the state.

About two-thirds of states have a merit-based system in which panels screen judicial candidates and make recommendations, according to the American Judicature Society. In South Carolina, the other state where the legislature selects judges, nominations must first be vetted by a committee.