We would have to agree with Mississippi Supreme Court JusticeEdwin Pittman that appellate and supreme court judges inMississippi should be appointed. Special interest groups have takenover our judicial system, and the public trust is now inquestion.

Justice Pittman is concerned after the recent supreme courtelection, in which one of candidates raised over $900,000. As thejustice says, those who donated that kind of money are going toexpect something in return.

Mississippians love to elect their judges, as evident by thevoters’ rejection earlier this month of the constitutionalamendment that would have extended the terms of circuit andchancery judges by two years. At the same time, however,Mississippians are showing an increased lack of trust in ourjudicial system due to the current fight in the Legislature betweentrial lawyers and the business and medical community over civiljustice reform.

Without a doubt an appointed system of selecting judges is farfrom perfect and does little to remove politics from the selectionprocess. But, also without a doubt, the current method of specialinterest groups with the deepest pockets picking our judges is notworking either.

Some states use an appointed system with a recall election afterseven years. Others use an appointed system with a select committeemade up legal scholars, citizens and supreme court judges using anapplication process to cull out the top three applicants, which arethen sent to the governor for final selection. Twenty states,including Mississippi, use the election process. Thirty states usesome type of appointed process.

We will not pretend to know the solution, but the time is rightfor open and honest debate on how to fix it.