Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page said "this nation would go crazy" if the referees officiating the Super Bowl on Sunday "had an interest in the outcome."
The former Minnesota Viking and member of the NFL Hall of Fame said Thursday he hopes Minnesotans would be equally outraged if judges who had an interest in the outcome decided court cases.
But that's exactly what could happen if the state doesn't overhaul the way it selects judges, he said.
That's why Page, former Gov. Al Quie and other leaders announced at a Capitol news conference the formation of an advocacy group, Minnesotans for Impartial Courts, to support a state constitutional amendment that would create "retention elections" for judges. The organization will wage a lobbying and education campaign to put the proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot.
In retention elections, voters decide whether to fire or keep sitting judges. Under current state law, judges can be unseated in an election only if someone comes forward and challenges them, which rarely happens.
Quie, the chairman of the group, said the change is needed to protect the fairness and impartiality of the state's judicial system.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 struck down Minnesota's restrictive rules governing judicial campaigns, so now candidates for judgeships are free to raise and spend unlimited sums of money, seek partisan endorsements and tell voters where they stand on issues. Quie said that opens
the door to high-stakes political campaigns for judges with negative advertising and special-interest group endorsements and money.
"You can't have an impartial judiciary if that is the case," said Quie, who last year chaired the Citizens Commission for the Preservation of an Impartial Judiciary that recommended retention elections.
The proposed amendment, sponsored by Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, and Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park, has these four key features:
-- A merit selection commission would nominate the most qualified candidates to fill all judicial vacancies.
-- The governor would appoint judges from a list provided by the commission.
-- A performance evaluation commission would be created to assess judges' performance and release its findings to the public.
-- Sitting judges would stand for retention elections every eight years. Voters would vote yes or no on the judge. No challengers would be on the ballot. If voters removed a judge from the bench, the governor would appoint a replacement.
First elected to the high court in 1992, Page is the only justice in recent history who was not first appointed by a governor.
Bill Salisbury can be reached at bsalisbury@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5538.
