JUDGE SELECTION PLAYS KEY ROLE in Strength of State’ s Judicial System
By Kylie Blanchard, Clearwater Communications
The appointment of a judge begins with the Judicial Nominating Committee’ s interview of applicants and its selection of nominees, which are then passed to the governor for formal interview and the selection of a finalist for appointment to an open judgeship.
It’ s a process in place to ensure the most qualified individuals are nominated and appointed, but it’ s not easy to make those selections, says Governor Kelly Armstrong.“ The fact I have to make tough decisions bodes well for the bar and state,” he notes.“ There hasn’ t been a single judge pool where I haven’ t had at least two people I could say‘ yes’ to.”
North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong
NOMINATING CANDIDATES
The Judicial Nominating Committee, established by N. D. C. C. Ch. 27-25, consists of six“ permanent” members who are appointed by the governor, the chief justice, and the president of the state bar. Each appointment must be one judge or lawyer and one non-judge or non-lawyer. The executive director of the State Bar Association of North Dakota( SBAND) serves as the nonvoting secretary of the committee.
When a judicial district experiences a vacancy, within 90 days of receiving notice of the vacancy and in consultation with the district’ s attorneys and judges, the Supreme Court must determine whether the office is still necessary or the judgeship should be transferred to a location of greater need.
Once determined the judgeship is necessary, the governor is notified and begins the process of convening the nominating committee. SBAND distributes notice of the opening, and once applicants have been received, SBAND also assists the committee in completing a judicial candidate survey.
Each committee member is assigned at least one candidate, depending on the number of applicants, and is charged with talking to references, clerks of court, and members of the bar and community. Prior to the applicants’ interviews, the committee gathers to discuss the applicants and the background work completed by committee members.
“ The Judicial Nominating Committee takes a considerable amount of time to investigate and interview candidates in an effort to send the most highly qualified candidates to the governor,” says SBAND Executive Director Tony Weiler.
The committee is responsible for submitting a list of two to seven nominees for the appointment within 60 days of receiving written notice from the governor of a vacancy.
Within 30 days of receiving the list of nominees, the governor is required to fill the vacancy, return the list of nominees and ask the committee to reconvene, or call a special election to fill the vacancy. If the committee fails to submit a list of nominees, the governor can also fill the seat through special election.“ We trust this committee a lot,” Armstrong says.“ We take what the committee does to heart. It’ s another layer of vetting in the process.”
To date, the Judicial Nominating Committee has met 46 times since June 2013 to forward candidate lists to the governor.“ Unless a person has applied for appointment, or has been on the committee, they may know very little about how the process works,” says Weiler.“ I believe it identifies strong candidates for the governor, who then appoints a highly qualified lawyer to serve on the bench. The process is efficient and a judge is appointed within several months of an opening.”
Justice Mark A. Friese was appointed to the North Dakota Supreme Court in February and sworn in on May 1.
CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS
Armstrong says there is an art and a science to finding the best candidates for judgeship positions.“ The committee does the science part of it, researching the candidates, and we’ ll play to the arts space in our interview questions,” says Armstrong.“ But every governor does it differently.”
18 THE GAVEL