Judicial Evaluation Bill Set for House Consideration

Legislation to significantly revamp the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission could be heard as early as tomorrow in a House Judiciary subcommittee. The bill (SB 1058/HB 1227), as amended last week in the Senate Judiciary Committee, removes all of the present Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission members, reconstitutes the body without any judges as members, allows the commission to rewrite evaluation criteria, and provides that if an incumbent appellate level judge is evaluated as “for replacement,” that judge may not stand for retention election. The resulting judicial vacancy would then be filled by gubernatorial appointment after a nominating commission recommendation. TBA President Jackie Dixon said action on this bill right now amounts to “changing the rules, the referees and the scorekeeping after the two minute warning.” Retention elections are set for August 2014 for all current Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals judges.