The VLW Blog

Roanoke Bar Association president George “Al” McLean gives a measured response to the recent comment by Roanoke state Senator Ralph Smith that lawyers have too much influence in the judicial selection process. McLean’s comments appear in a Sunday op-ed piece in the Roanoke Times.

UPDATE: We are advised that the McLean essay was approved by the board of directors of the Roanoke Bar Association. It is intended to voice the views of the association.

The General Assembly elected 22 judges late yesterday but failed to fill vacancies on the State Corporation Commission and in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton and Roanoke.

Court of Appeals Judges Robert J. Humphreys and Jean Harrison Clements won reappointments, and the other elections were for vacancies in circuit, general district and juvenile and domestic relations district court.

The failure to reappoint Humphreys promptly was viewed as the most embarrassing aspect of the legislative wrangling over judgeships. He went off the bench April 15 when his term expired even though there was no opposition to his reappointment.

A deal brokered by Del. Bill Janis, R-Henrico, and Sen. Don McEachin, R-Henrico, to appoint Henrico Circuit Judge Catherine Hammond to the SCC and replace her with Mary Bennett Malveaux fell apart. The Richmond Times-Dispatch describes the impasse.

The Daily Press has an analysis of the legislative discord in Hampton, and The Virginian-Pilot has a story on the Norfolk-Virginia Beach squabbling.

In Roanoke, the delegation has been unable to decide between Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald S. Caldwell and Salem City Council Member J. Christopher Clemens for the general district seat held by retiring Judge Julian Raney.

The Division of Legislative Services has a list of the appointments.

The General Assembly will extend its session by three days, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Disagreements remain on the budget, but legislators apparently can’t agree on judicial choices, either. Some 36 seats – including a spot on both the State Corporation Commission and the Workers’ Compensation Commission – could go empty by adjournment if deals aren’t worked out.

The T-D says that the open SCC position is causing some friction. Republican Del. Bill Janis and Democratic Sen. Donald McEachin have cut a deal to elevate Henrico Circuit Judge Catherine Hammond to the SCC, in return for an African-American lawyer’s taking her seat on the circuit bench. But other legislators in the Richmond area, namely Sens. Walter Stosch and John Watkins, have objected.

Stay tuned.

Virginia remains only one of two states where the legislature elects judges. Critics complain, sometimes with justification, about our system. Some argue that it has become a way to dispense political patronage (as if that element hadn’t always been part of the scheme). Bar groups, whose members may know candidates best, seemingly have been marginalized in the selection process.

It could be a lot worse.

Ruth Marcus has a column in this morning’s Washington Post that indicates that nasty attack ads have been on the uptick in states that hold popular elections for judges. A candidate for the Kentucky Supreme Court was savaged with an ad Marcus calls “Willie Horton Goes to Court.”

And the races are getting costly. Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb of the Alabama Supreme Court spent just $5,000 in her first race in 1982, running for a lower-level judgeship. But for seeking a seat on the high court this past year, Cobb’s tab was a cool $2.6 million.