Special-interest lobbies pour cast into judicial races

[flashl]

By Tim Jones | Chicago Tribune correspondent
July 28, 2008

Sixty-six percent of Americans can name at least one judge on the popular TV show "American Idol," while only 15 percent can identify John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court. That's according to a poll showing Americans are largely clueless when it comes to knowledge of the nation's judicial system.

Yet special-interest lobbies — from business groups to labor unions and trial lawyers — know very well who is running for state Supreme Court seats around the nation because they are pouring unprecedented millions of dollars into these formerly obscure races, with the intent of electing justices who will advance or protect their financial interests.

The recent $6 million campaign for a single seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, following a contest a year earlier in which a similar amount was spent, has added to evidence that state courts may be compromised, if not in fact then in appearance, by campaign cash from contributors who have matters pending before those courts, legal experts warn.

In many ways the escalation of spending for court seats mirrors the current best-selling potboiler by John Grisham, "The Appeal," in which fictional corporate interests bankroll a candidate for a state Supreme Court seat in hopes of reversing a large damage verdict against the company.

"It's an arms race," said Bert Brandenburg, executive director of the Justice at Stake Campaign, a Washington-based, non-profit judicial watchdog. "The spending is almost entirely fueled by trial attorneys and business attorneys slugging it out, just as they would in a courtroom."