Law Reform Measure Fails in South Dakota

South Dakota's "J.A.I.L for Judges" Measure Fails according the the WSJ.com's Law Blog

There's no update on J.A.I.L's website though, at least not that I can find.

But wait there's more. Newly elected New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has plans as noted in today's New York Times Editorial The Task for Mr. Spitzer.

Mr. Spitzer has repeatedly promised to do in Albany what he did on Wall Street as attorney general. That means cleaning up cronyism and the culture of secrecy. But his plans for reform are by no means limited to the way the political game is played. He promises Medicaid reform, debt reform and court reform — each one involving entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo. At the same time, he vows to make New York a national leader in the areas where leadership has failed in Washington, like education, civil rights, the environment and housing.

And wait, wait, there's still more in Colorado's Amendment 40 on DenverPost.com Performance reviews proposed for judges</span>.

A 120-page study done at a think tank Kourlis set up at the University of Denver concluded that "the time has come to implement judicial performance evaluation programs in every state and federal jurisdiction in the United States."

Even though Amendment 40 lost by 56.87% of the vote, it's amazing that it even came up for a vote and shows growing discontent on judicial accountability across the nation.

That independence, said federal Judge Thomas Hogan of the Washington, D.C., area, who leads the executive committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, "is a foundation of our system of justice which has made our system of justice, certainly the federal system, the envy of the world."

But mishandled cases nationwide "are breeding converts" for those who support reform, said lawyer Gary Zerman, a lawyer who runs JAIL 4 Judges, a Los Angeles-based group that has branches in 50 states.

Judges "have never been apolitical," he said. "They have to be held accountable. No man is above the law."

For more on how the courts fail women read here, here and here.