Litigation

OK Chamber Seeks Delay in Selecting Justice

By Peter Hardin

On Election Day, voters changed the makeup of an Oklahoma panel that nominates candidates for higher state courts. Now the state Chamber of Commerce has asked for a delay in selecting a new state justice, until the panel is restructured.

The state Chamber supported State Question 752. The ballot measure expanded the panel from 13 to 15 members by adding two non-lawyer, at-large appointees. It also prohibited panelists appointed by the governor from having lawyers in their immediate families, according to an article in The Oklahoman.

The ballot measure was aimed at limiting lawyers to holding six seats on a 15-member panel, and it was backed by business interests who wanted to curb lawyers’ clout in selecting judges, a Tulsa World article said. But in the short term, the commission has 10 members — including six lawyers. That’s because the two new members haven’t been appointed yet, and three members resigned because they had lawyers in their immediate families.

State Chamber President Fred Morgan, a former Republican lawmaker, asked the commission to suspend selection of a new justice until the panel is restructured.

“I don’t work for the Chamber of Commerce,” was the response from Allen Smallwood, chairman of the Judicial Nominating Commission. He said he did not intend to heed the state Chamber’s request.

A change in governors, and political parties in the governor’s office, also is in play. Gov. Brad Henry is a Democrat. Gov.-Elect Mary Fallin is a Republican. “The governor has not told me to stop,” Smallwood said. “I don’t think I have the authority to avoid the responsibility we have.”

According to an earlier Oklahoman article, the state Chamber spent $90,000 on independent expenditures in support of the ballot question.

Full post as published by The Gavel on November 24, 2010 (boomark / email).