Douglas Keith of the Brennan Center discusses the Politics of Judicial Elections

Throughout most of U.S. history, state courts (and judicial elections) have seldom been the site of pitched political battles. While these courts regularly issued important rulings with significant impacts on public policy debates, the judges and justices who served on these courts were generally able to avoid being drawn into the bareknuckle politics that so often characterize races for other elected offices.

In recent decades, however, things have changed. In the late 20^th Century, the political right launched an ambitious national effort to promote and fund the campaigns of conservative judges and in recent years, progressives have been doing their best to respond. These developments have had a big impact on the courts and American politics generally, and recently we had an extended chat with an expert who follows, chronicles, and weighs in on this subject, attorney Douglas Keith of the Brennan Center for Justice. In Part One of our conversation, Keith explained how this arose and just what big deal it’s become.

In Part Two of our chat, we discussed some of the worrisome implications of this transformation, and perhaps most importantly, some of the changes that states can and should consider adopting in order to depoliticize state courts and restore public faith in the idea of an independent and impartial judiciary. Read Keith’s latest report here.