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From: newman@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Ron Newman)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Election of Judges in U.S.
Message-ID: <538@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU>
Date: Mon, 19-May-86 12:38:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-tril.538
Posted: Mon May 19 12:38:05 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 23-May-86 21:24:39 EDT
References: <2927@decwrl.DEC.COM> <513@snow.warwick.UUCP>
Reply-To: newman@athena.mit.edu (Ron Newman)
Organization: MIT Project Athena
Lines: 16
Keywords: election, judges, death penalty
To: seismo!mcvax!ukc!warwick!rpt@harvard

Judges are elected in several of the United States, including Ohio,
where I grew up.  

In some of the other states, such as California,
judges periodically come up for "confirmation" elections.  The sitting
judges has no opponent but the voters get to vote "yes" or "no".  If
the majority vote "no", a new judge is appointed (or elected--I'm not
sure which, since this never happened while I lived in California).

This November, Rose Bird, the Chief Justice of the California Supreme
Court, comes up for reconfirmation.   Right-wingers there have targeted
her for defeat because of her opposition to the death penalty.  
Unfortunately, she is likely to lose the election.

--Ron Newman, MIT Project Athena
"Why be normal?"