What is the current system for appointing judges?

In the 1950’s, it was discovered that certain Supreme Court justices were taking bribes to rule in favor of big business in certain court cases. It was learned that these judges were political friends of the very politicians who helped get them appointed. To fix that, the Oklahoma Constitution was changed to a system where regular people in our state were involved in the process. Since 1967, that process has kept corrupt judges off the Court and ensured small business and citizens get equal and fair treatment in their cases. 

Currently, the Judicial Nominating Commission, sometimes called the JNC, is a 15-member commission composed of nine members of the public – regular, everyday Oklahomans – and six members of the Oklahoma Bar Association – experts on the law. This group reviews applications for vacant judicial offices and narrows it down to three qualified, commonsense options and sends them to the governor to choose amongst. Currently, there are roughly a dozen states in the country that use a similar system to keep special interests from rigging the court system. Why should Oklahoma legislators sell us out, now?

What’s the threat?

Special interests like insurance companies and giant corporations want to rig judicial appointment system and get judges that are favorable to them to get an advantage over regular people and hardworking small businesses.  

Be careful of misinformation

Some people will say, “put it to a vote and let the people decide on changing back to the old, corrupt system.” But what is wrong with that? Special interest money. If this new system of appointment comes to a vote, those who want to rig the system will launch a multi-million-dollar campaign to mislead people with fake news that a corrupt judicial system would be better for them. Millions of dollars in out-of-state special interest money would buy our judicial system just like they are trying to buy our legislators so they will vote to put this on the ballot.

Isn’t this just the federal system of judicial appointment? What’s wrong with that?  

Exactly. Special interests want to rig the system so Oklahoma’s judicial system is as broken as the federal system. Today, special interests are trying to find a way to rig the system in their favor of big corporations over regular Oklahoma families. Tomorrow, it may be out-of-state, liberal special interests trying to install activist judges of their own in Oklahoma.

Tell your legislator to vote “NO” on House Joint Resolution 1041 (HJR 1041), Senate Joint Resolution 6 (SJR 6), and Senate Joint Resolution 18 (SJR 18).

Click the link below to find out who your State Senator and Representative is and their contact information.