AP offers this report about Justice O’Connor’s comments at a very interesting Seattle University event that I attended yesterday on judicial selection mechanisms. It was particularly interesting to hear the perspectives not only of Justice O’Connor, but of Chief Justice Alexander (of Washington State), Chief Justice Abrahamson (Wisconsin), and Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson (Texas). (I had to miss the last session, which featured more jurists and others to catch the last flight home to Burbank.) I hope the video of this event gets posted soon, and if it does, I will link.
I was on a panel with Bert Brandenburg, Andrew Siegel, and Kathleen Sullivan talking about the Caperton case. (My prepared comments are here.) It was a somewhat surreal experience to sit next to Kathleen (usually an ardent opponent of campaign regulations aside from disclosure) to hear Kathleen call for consideration of a ban for everyone on independent spending in judicial campaigns, and to hear me play the Kathleen role in raising incumbency protection and other first amendment issues in questioning that call. In any case, it was a great discussion.
Kudos to the organizers of this terrific event.