Next week, we’ll hit the polls to vote for Hillary or Trump and whoever is running for Senate, and then run off to other things.
Just make sure to stick around the polling booth long enough to do your civic duty to stop the legislative mugging of a governmental agency that actually gets stuff done.
I’m talking about a state constitutional amendment concerning the Judicial Qualifications Commission. And don’t let that humdrum title fool you. This story includes sex and drugs and conspiracy and all kinds of naughty behavior because we’re talking about judges. And under those robes they are also human beings.
The Judicial Qualifications Commission is the agency that ran off 66 judges in a few short years, many of them for committing the offenses mentioned above.
Still, most voters are unfamiliar with the JQC, and that's what those wily legislators are counting on. Near the bottom of this year's ballot are four constitutional amendments, a tried-and-true way for legislators to sneak what they want past voters.
Normally, you should vote “no” for such ballot initiatives because they are written by teams of lawyers and trained obfuscators.
The JQC amendment was passed earlier this year and put on the ballot by many legislators who hadn't a clue what it was other than House Speaker David Ralston was pushing it hard. And no one wants to get crosswise with Mr. Speaker.
The measure asks voters to abolish the current JQC and “require the General Assembly to create and provide by general law for the composition, manner of appointment, and governance of a new Judicial Qualifications Commission, with such commission having the power to discipline, remove, and cause involuntary retirement of judges” … and so on.
If it were written in walking-around English it would say, “A couple of judges complained that they were mistreated by this semi-secretive agency, so they got a few of us friendly lawmakers to do their bidding and defang this watchdog. We’ll put it back together better than ever. Trust us on this one.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, who has been the point man on shoveling this hot mess through the sausage factory, accidentally let loose with a state secret on WABE radio when he said: "My expectation is two-thirds of people going in to cast ballots will not even know it's on the ballot. They will look at it and pass it. Unless it calls for some kind of tax increase, people will support it."
Lawmakers know Georgia voters can sniff out a tax hike even when hidden amidst a pile of gilded, impenetrable verbiage.
The JQC was set up decades ago to investigate judges and be free of political influence. This is important because having political connections is a key requisite for becoming a judge.
But the JQC's independence has become a problem. The org has seven members — two are judges appointed by the state Supreme Court, three are lawyers picked by the State Bar, and two are regular Joes appointed by the governor.
Under the new-and-improved JQC, the lieutenant governor (who heads the Senate) and the House speaker would each get two picks, the Supreme Court would get two, and the governor would get one. Legislators absolutely love this because they now have precisely zero picks.
The new model admittedly screws over the State Bar, which will lose all three of its picks. Normally, I’d support any public initiative that sticks it to the lawyers, but in this case they have a natural predisposition to be involved with investigating and disciplining hinky judges.
Recently, a lawyer named Seth Kirschenbaum approached his fellow State Bar members at a convention and asked them to publicly oppose this legislative takeover.
“My point was you have to stand up for something, you have to stand up against bullies,” he told me.
After all, they reasoned, why poke the bear? Yogi the Bear, aka Speaker Ralston, is already angry at them. The speaker, a lawyer in his day job, is accused of violating State Bar rules while representing a client, charges that the Bar declined to settle with a slap on the wrist and, instead, demanded an evidentiary hearing.
State Bar leaders are said to be worried that the Legislature, in retaliation, will make Bar membership voluntary for lawyers rather than mandatory, a move that would cut the pinstriped legs out from under the association.
So, to sum up this sordid tale, legislators pass the amendment question so as not to anger the House speaker. State Bar members refuse to take a stand against a move they mostly think is wrong so as not to anger legislators. And legislators are fixin’ to take over the apparatus to discipline bad judges, who may be their friends.
The only thing that can stop this circle of tomfoolery and intimidation is Georgia’s voters.
Just vote No.
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