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Show The Utah Enterprise Review , January 26. 1977 Page 19b Toward a Better Judicial Nominating System by Parker M. Nielson c 0 u In the Dec. 29, 1976 Enterprise Review, I commented upon what struck me as abuses in the Judicial nominating process and in his Jan. 19, column Kent Shearer postulated similar abuses in the statutory method for appointment of state senators and representatives. It is appropriate, therefore, for the critics to come forward with some solutions. Further discussion of this matter is timely, moreover, for the Washington Post indicated in its Jan. 8 issue that the Carter administration will adopt a similar system for the N T appointment of federal judges. In our efforts to assure that elected officials appoint judges on their qualifications, and not use judgeships to reward political cronies, we may have gone too far and created a system just as arbitrary but less responsive. The members of the nominating Commission under the Utah statute are not elected and some of them are not even appointed by elected officials. Experience teaches that unless subjected to checks, such bodies will almost invariably flex their muscles by injecting their subjective views into the selection process. It was obvious in some of the appointments of Governor Rampton that the Commission attempted to, and did, usurp his choice by structuring the three persons certified in such a way that he really was left but one alternative. The purpose of the Commission is to see that the best qualified candidates are certified to the offical having the power of appointment (the President and Governor, respectively), not to make that selection. One object of any E R P 0 I N T 1UPUp i me Toma tiocam. spot i WC 10 M judgements. What is needed is a middle position between the past and present systems, with discretionary choices retained by the Governor and the matter of qualifications passed on by the Commission. Certification of a larger list than the three specified by the Utah statute might serve that end for the Governor might then nullify an attempted abuse by the Commission. In fact, why not certify every candidate found qualified? The possibility that the Commission might arbitrarily disregard the statutory criterion could be reduced further if it is required that the Commission report on why it found the candidates selected to be best qualified or any particular candidate unqualified. Such a statement could be in confidence to the Governor, possibly to be made public on demand of any rejected candidate. Finally, the Governor should have some means to deal with an arbitrary abuse of the system. Notwithstanding its hazards, perhaps the Governor should be permitted to refer the list back to the Commission one time if he feels that qualified candidates were omitted. A judicial test of the legitimacy of any Commission action, such as is common in other governmental functions, also seems appropriate. The ultimate selection, in any event, should be made by the person given the mandate of the electorate to do so. Such matters should not be decided in secret, by persons not elected by the people. Let us hope that the plan ultimately adopted by the Carter administration wrill avoid the problems spawned by the Utah system. I v HAVE- - 10 MV 10 M1 verem mxzv oe reform ought to be to eliminate entirely, if that is possible, any opportunity for the Commission to make political T-SHI- XCWH RT y WZVKl- - HDD 3 me turoep iMTSTiTP fORCeP ik) 7Y" eaui BOTTOM. me pump iUtiPBR MV wiu I Di AM we MST emm fVRC ? CNZTOOV DSD EDz. &Xnrj(h& Pragmatic Dogmatics1 A Strange Campaign by Kent Shearer Were the race for the Republican National Chairmanship an Olympic event, Richard Richards would have been a Silver Medalist. The Utah chairman came in second in his Jan. 14 bid to succeed the outgoing Mary Louise Smith. On the third ballot, Richards received 46 votes. The victor, former Senator William E. Brock, got 90, or 9 more than needed for election. From its onset, Richards quest was He burdened with inherent difficulties. comes from a sparsely populated region. His allegience to LDS doctrine had to be a handicap as he sought to head a party in desperate national need of Black support. His prior tenure on the National Committee staff had been marked by infighting with his immediate superior, Tom Evans, now' a Congressman from Delaware. Further he could take no advantage of Brocks 1976 Senate Teelection defeat in that Brock s overall electoral record of 5 wins and 1 defeat betters that of Richards, who stands at 0 - 3. On the other hand, Richards' campaign seems to have been perversely designed to add to his problems. At least one of the floor workers whom he carried to Washington appears reflective I refer to Gerald of a death wish. Hansen, the former Salt Lake County Auditor, who but recently had resigned his office amidst allegations of mishandling of My information is that public funds. Hansen assumed a major domo role, repleat with a continuing effort on his part to issue orders to staffers of GOP members of Utahs Congressional Delegation. I do not know if the other contenders were informed of - or, if informed, capitalized upon Hansens clouded background. The fact that they could have said, This is the kind of man Richards will hire, is, however, a symptom of the sickness of the Richards effort. Of more serious substantive concern is a savvy and the fact that Richards put all of experienced political operative his campaign eggs in one electoral basket: the endorsement of Ronald Reagan. Whatever one may think of Reagan (and I happen to think very highly of him), it was always clear that Reagan alone could not deliver a National Chairmanship. Not only was his endorsement anathema to GOP moderates and liberals; it also was a mixed blessing among those Republican conservatives (like Brock) who, oftern at their peril, had remained loyal to Gerald Ford throughout Reagan's 1976 presidential challenge. Richards could have obviated those obstacles which were imposed rather than He could have told Gerald inherited. Hansen to remain in Salt Lake. He could have modified the Reagan impact by use of the moderate George Romney, whose nomination for President Richards had seconded at the 1968 Convention. Neither step was taken. There is an old saying that a lawyer who represents myself has a fool for a client. Richards is a most capable political manager, but perhaps the better part of wisdom would have been for him to relinquish management of this National Chairmanship foray to someone else. |