Cash on the scales

Lady Justice is often depicted blindfolded, to signify that outside influence does not tip the scales she holds to weigh the truth. Unfortunately, the scales are routinely tipped by special interests that pour money into judicial elections to get a desired result.

Too often, voters are blind to what is going on, yet this is a national problem. A new report by the Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics details the threat.

"The story of the 2009-2010 elections and their aftermath in state legislatures in 2011 reveals a coalescing national campaign that seeks to intimidate America's state judges into becoming accountable to money and ideologies instead of the Constitution and the law," the report concludes. That campaign, it adds, poses "some of the gravest threats yet to fair and impartial justice in America."

Nearly a third of the $38.4 million spent on state high court elections in 2009-10 came from noncandidate groups, the report said. Although that spending was slightly less than in the last nonpresidential election cycle, nearly 40 percent of the funds in high court races came from just 10 groups.

More alarming, these spenders were behind three out of four attack ads. These trends are not helped by last year's Citizens United ruling, in which the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the law on corporate and union funding of elections.

In the period studied, Michigan had the dubious distinction of hosting the nation's most-expensive high court election. That race could be the poster child for what can go wrong when money infects judicial elections.

In a merit selection system for judges, the corrupting influence of money would not be an issue. Instead, politicians and voters alike wear self-imposed blindfolds and pretend only to hear banging gavels, not cash hitting the scales of justice.