New Alabama Bar Association President Proposes End to Election of Judges

Bobby Segall, the new President of the Alabama State Bar, is certainly not an "ultraconservative," and I doubt seriously whether he's a member of the Federalist Society. According to the AP:

Segall represented former Gov. Don Siegelman in his Medicaid bribery trial last year. His other clients have included the Alabama Education Association, Democratic state senators who fought with Republican Lt. Gov. Steve Windom over leadership of the Senate in 1999, and poor parents and their children in Alabama's equity funding lawsuit for schools in the 1990s.

Obviously disappointed by the Democratic Party's failures at the ballot box in recent elections, Segall also proposes that state Supreme Court and Appeals Court judges be nominated by the Governor based on "merit" from a list submitted by a committee.

The chief argument in favor of this method of judicial appointment is that it removes "politics" from the process of selecting judges. That's bunk. The nominating committee that Segall proposes will be no less influenced by political considerations than under the current system, in which judges are elected. Such a committee will undoubtedly be dominated by lawyers, politicians, and former politicians. The only difference will be that the judiciary will become a few more steps removed from the people it serves, and potential nominees will be beholden to the personal attachments of the select few who constitute the nominating committee. Other than providing jobs for out-of-favor liberals in the Democratic Party, it's anyone's guess as to how Segall's proposal would improve on popular election.