Competing Judge Appointment Ideas Swoop Towards Senate Floor

Two very different ways of appointing state judges flew out of a state Senate Committee Tuesday and were immediately scheduled for a floor vote on Wednesday.

The plan from Senator Mark Norris is closer to the governor’s idea to write the current judicial appointment process into the state Constitution, but it’s not exactly the same

The other version, from fellow Memphis Republican Brian Kelsey, is like the federal system. The legislature would confirm appointments by the governor. That is better accepted by conservative groups, which for years have pushed for direct elections of judges.

Attorney Gif Thornton is following the measures for the Tennessee Bar Association. He says there is no compromise between the two sides, at least not yet.

“Senator Norris and Senator Kelsey have been in discussions, and presumably will continue in discussions, and may yet coalesce around one plan, but right now those are competing plans.”

The two proposed amendments to the state Constitution were approved by the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

It was left up to the full Senate to choose between them – an almost unprecedented move. Ordinarily the Judiciary Committee would have championed one resolution. Instead that committee approved both.

After three years of maneuvering, the General Assembly is trying to keep one of the measures on track for the 2014 ballot. To make the deadline, both the House and Senate must pass the winning resolution three times on three different days. The Senate is unofficially trying to wrap up its business by April 17.

WEB EXTRA:
The TBA’s Thornton has been tracking the proposals from the beginning.

“Governor Haslam…in a joint press conference with…the two speakers,
January 25th, indicated his support for the current system and that it was working well. At that time the hope was that they could put language in the Constitution to clearly authorize what we have now. Since that time the legislative leadership has moved, at least apparently, in a different direction.”

The resolutions under discussion:

Senate Joint Resolution 710 Kelsey, judges by legislative confirmation, was approved by the Senate Finance Committee on a vote of 6-4-1. Democrats complained that the committee wasn’t doing its job in failing to decide between the two proposals.

SJR 183 Norris would give the legislature the power to set up a merit-based appointment system for appellate judges and Supreme Court justices. It cleared Senate Finance 7-1-3.

Within hours both resolutions were set for Senate floor debate.