Last year’s impeachment of Supreme Court Chief justice David Brock prompted lawmakers from across the political spectrum to endorse the overhaul of the present judicial disciplinary system, the judicial conduct committee, or JCC. If such broad support suggests the will to reform the courts is ample, recent state house debate makes clear the way remains uncertain.
NHPR’s Josh Rogers reports.
Attorney Jack Sanders chaired a task force charged with fixing the JCC. That task force advised forming a new “independent”commission appointed by all branches of government, not simply the court, and called for the commission to draw its staff, offices, and funding from outside the court budget. Most hailed those recommendations as a good start, and they formed the backbone for proposals drafted in the both bodies of the legislature. The recommendations were also adopted by the Court itself last week. And while that move drew accusations that the court was acting premptively to try and head off lawmakers potentially broader reform initiatives. Sanders touted the court’s action in front of several legislative committees. He said it demonstrated a new consensus over what was needed to fix the JCC, and preached the virtues of cooperation
If all three branches of Government can come together on something as important as this without necessarily any one claiming ownership. I think that would be wonderful.
While few would dispute that cooperation is good… Legislators like Enfield Representative Paul Mirski believes the constitution dictates that judicial reform is rightly the province of the legislature.
You know you want to do this, you want to do this, you want to do this…..and I think if were gonna do this we have to do this within a fairly closely defined parameters….It has to come out of this body and not be connected with the other branches.
Others, however, see things rather differently. Manchester Attorney Eugene Van Loan, told lawmakers that the constitution may grant the legislature the power to create courts, but no broad right to police them.
You can’t just look at the constitution and ask what gives the judiciary it’s powers. You have to look at the constitution initially and say where do we get our powers. What is the source of out power to do this.I see none.
Van Loan says lawmakers rights begin and end with their right to impeach judges or remove them via a bill of address. And Van Loan cautioned against any move to create what he called a fourth branch of government. He says the proposal for an “independent commission” is too reminiscent of the now lapsed federal provision that created the office of the special prosecutor. The law the brought us Kenneth Starr. Van loan says any new commission must remain under the court.
Just in the same sense that the legislature has an ethics committee. It ‘s under the supervision of the House of Representatives. It’s not independent. It’s not under the judiciary. It’s not under the Governor. It’s under the legislature….even though its responsibility is to review the ethics of house members.
House judiciary committee member Robert Rowe, himself a former judge, says lawmakers have slightly broader rights that Van Loan claims, but admits they’re not particularly deep.
We can say anything we want in term of evaluating them and sanctions….those are just words…We cant dock their salaries ….We can’t suspend them for a month, we can’t say you’re going to serve in the Timbuktu court in the worst weather for three months….
But Rowe also belives that constitutional elegance should not stand in the way of doing the people’s will.
What the people of this state want to have is an open window into how th courts are functioning. They want to know whether a judge is violating a code of ethics or is not performing his job…..And this is going to do that. And if it can do only that it’s gong to help the judical system.
And though Rowe says he doesn’t seek a constitutional amendment to give any new commission broader powers. Many of his judiciary committee colleagues believe that’s the only way public confidence in the judiciary can be reestablished. The House’s judicial conduct committee reform bill is slated for hearing before month’s end.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo