Bill Would Bar Judges From Hearing Donors' Cases
By Evan Weinberger
Law 360
August 26, 2010

EXCERPT:

James Sample, a Hofstra Law School professor, said that the law was a preemptive strike aimed at keeping control of campaign spending in judicial campaigns that critics refer to as an “arms race.” More than $9.3 million was spent for an Illinois Supreme Court race in 2004, much of it by outside third-party groups, the costliest judicial election so far.

But the law will have a limited effect because the seven California Supreme Court justices — one chief justice and six associate justices — are appointed by the state's governor to 12-year terms and then are subject to retention elections.

“I think it's a step in the right direction,” Sample said. “California doesn't yet have a money and courts problem the way many other states around the country do, and part of that is because the state Supreme Court is not elected.”

Read the full article at law360.com.