Impact of Judicial Elections on Judicial Decisions

Kritzer, Herbert M.

doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110615-084812

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Concerns over judicial independence have regularly recurred, leading to proposals and laws concerning nonpartisan merit selection of judges and systems in which judges run for retention, but not against an opponent. Many states have made changes, sometimes several times (Hanssen 2004;Shugerman 2012;Kritzer 2016). The situation with prosecutors is different.…”

Section: A Criminal Law Politicizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatalism and Indifference: The Influence of the Frontier on American Criminal Justice

Tonry¹

2021

Crime and Justice

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American criminal laws and criminal justice systems are harsher, more punitive, more afflicted by racial disparities and injustices, more indifferent to suffering, and less respectful of human dignity than those of other Western countries. The explanations usually offered-rising crime rates in the 1970s and 1980s, public anger and anxiety, crime control politics, neoliberal economic and social policies-are fundamentally incomplete. The deeper explanations are four features of American history that shaped values, attitudes, and beliefs and produced a political culture in which suffering is fatalistically accepted and policy makers are largely indifferent to individual injustices. They are the history of American race relations, the evolution of Protestant fundamentalism, local election of judges and prosecutors, and the continuing influence of political and social values that emerged during three centuries of western expansion. The last, encapsulated in Frederick Jackson Turner's "frontier thesis," is interwoven with the other three. Together, they explain long-term characteristics of American criminal justice and the extraordinary severity of penal policies and practices since the 1970s.Clichéd though the contrast may be, there is substance to the view that meeting basic human needs is widely seen in Western Europe as a fundamental responsibility of government, but not so in the United States. Demonstrative Michael Tonry is professor of law and public policy, University of Minnesota. Financial support from a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship is gratefully acknowledged.

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Section: A Criminal Law Politicizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatalism and Indifference: The Influence of the Frontier on American Criminal Justice

Tonry¹

2021

Crime and Justice

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“…The second change has been the general polarization of politics in the United States, which is also evident in state supreme court elections. Since at least 1980, state supreme court elections of all types—partisan, semi-partisan (nomination by party processes but nonpartisan general elections), nonpartisan, and retention—have become more partisan with the increase most striking in states using ostensibly nonpartisan elections (see Kritzer 2015, 179–200; Kritzer 2018, 412–14; Weinschenk et al 2020; Kritzer 2021–22).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Appointed or Elected: How Justices on Elected State Supreme Courts Are Actually Selected

Kritzer¹

2022

Law Soc. Inq.

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During at least part of the post–World War II period, the constitutions of thirty-six states called for the popular election of the judges of the states’ highest courts. In practice, only slightly more than half of those judges (excluding strictly interim appointees) initially obtained their positions by election. This article examines the likelihood of initial election in actual practice, how it has varied over time, and various factors that might be related to election versus appointment (e.g., type of election, mandatory retirement). It concludes that state norms play a substantial role in determining patterns of actual selection.

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Chicago Police Torture and the Limits of Human Rights Enforcement in Liberal Democracies

Berlin

2024

Perspect. polit.

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From 1972 to 1991, a network of Chicago Police detectives used torture to force confessions from over 100 criminal suspects. Almost all were Black men, and many were wrongly convicted, some for capital offenses. I synthesize insights from comparative research on human rights, state abuse, and police violence in democracies to explain why, for nearly two decades, liberal institutions in Chicago failed to stop the torture. I argue that the nature of state violence in this case—targeting marginalized individuals uninvolved in political activity—intensified the practical, affective, and informational obstacles that are inherent to activating liberal institutions—courts, elected officials, media, and civil society—to fulfill their roles as rights enforcers. Applying these literatures to a type of case they typically overlook—a wealthy liberal democracy—contributes to understanding why state violence persists in such states and why it tends to concentrate on marginalized populations.

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Impact of Judicial Elections on Judicial Decisions

Cited by 4 publications

References 52 publications

Fatalism and Indifference: The Influence of the Frontier on American Criminal Justice

Fatalism and Indifference: The Influence of the Frontier on American Criminal Justice

Appointed or Elected: How Justices on Elected State Supreme Courts Are Actually Selected

Chicago Police Torture and the Limits of Human Rights Enforcement in Liberal Democracies

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