Judicial Nomination Showdown in Tennessee

Gov. Haslam of Tennessee should exercise his authority under a 2009 amendment to judicial nomination law and appoint a judge himself when Justice Janice Holder retires in 2014. He should resist the trial bar’s attempt to insert itself into the nomination process. Collin Levy explains why at The Wall Street Journal.

In February, the state approved a constitutional amendment to end Tennessee’s use of the Missouri Plan for selecting state judges in favor of using the federal model in which the governor’s nominees would be confirmed by the legislature. That plan must be approved by voters in 2014. At the end of June, lawmakers allowed the Missouri Plan’s judicial nominating commission to expire, consistent with the state’s intention to move to a federal model.

But with a vacancy looming on the state Supreme Court—Justice Janice Holder is retiring in August 2014—Democrats and trial lawyers are claiming the lack of a commission leaves the state without any way to fill her seat. Hence, they’re angling to get the Missouri Plan reinstated on a “temporary” basis.

The hope is that a temporary reinstatement of the plan would derail the momentum for ending it altogether, but the manufactured vacancy crisis may have no grounding in state law. Under the Missouri Plan, a judicial nominating commission picks a slate of potential nominees for the governor anytime a vacancy arises on the bench. Until recently, the governor was powerless to act without the submission of a list of candidates from the commission.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

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E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.