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Tennessee Supreme Court justice lauds method to select judges

Published September 15th, 2009 | 0 Comments

KINGSPORT — Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade sounded thankful Tuesday that the state’s top judges won’t have to raise money for a full-blown election campaign similar to state lawmakers.

“I certainly fall into the category of being supportive of ... a system that produces the best possible judges for the state of Tennessee,” Wade said before speaking to more than 50 attorneys and business leaders at a Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “Campaigns are difficult and often compromising if you have to take positions on cases and issues that may later come before you in a case. Keeping our judiciary as pure as reasonably possible is the best way to go.”

This year, the legislature changed the way judges are selected by replacing the state’s judicial selection commission with a judicial nominating commission.

Lawmakers opted to allow the Senate and House speakers to have eight commission picks apiece, including 12 lawyers all total and one non-lawyer jointly appointed.

Under the old system — commonly known as the “Tennessee Plan” — groups representing attorneys submitted judicial selection commission picks to the speakers.

In the new system, the governor still retains the responsibility of appointing one of three nominees recommended by the commission under certain conditions.

Judges also still have to go through retention elections with voters being asked to vote “yes” or “no” to retain the individual.

Wade told the downtown lunch gathering at the Bus Pit that the new judge selection method maintains “a system not based on partisan politics.”

After his appointment to the state’s highest court, Wade recused himself in 2007 from participating in a case involving the process for filling a vacancy on the court.

“While I hold no preconceived opinions regarding the merits of the issues presented and have no reservations about exercising my duty under the law, it is my desire to avoid even the appearance of impropriety,” Wade wrote in recusing himself.

One of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s more noteworthy decisions since his appointment, Wade said, was a Knox County ruling holding that term limits were applicable to all but judicial offices.

As a result, certain Knox County Commission members who had stood for election in 2006 were declared to be term limited and their offices vacated.

“The publisher of the Knoxville (News) Sentinel called me the other day, years after the decision went down, and thanked the Supreme Court for the decision,” Wade said before the luncheon. “I said ‘Why is that?’ He said ‘It’s the gift that keeps on giving here in Knox County because we’ve had so many stories emanate from that one decision involving elections of new commissioners and changes within the commission.’”

In other remarks at the luncheon, Wade suggested Tennessee needs more lawyers to give time to the underserved.

Wade said 70 percent — or 700,000 — of the 1 million Tennesseans living at or below the poverty line need legal counsel at some point.

“That is not enough (attorneys) to meet the demand,” Wade said.

In comparison, Wade noted the nonprofit group Legal Aid of East Tennessee served about 10,000 people last year with a 60-member staff including 22 lawyers on a $4 million budget.

“If we were able to solve this (representation) problem, it would require every lawyer in East Tennessee to donate $50 per month or 50 hours per year in legal services,” Wade said.

Wade acknowledged Kingsport attorney Jimmie Miller having “an important hand” as a member of the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners in starting a new law school at Lincoln Memorial University. The school’s inaugural class has about 80 students.

While he noted attorneys and businesses are practicing during challenging economic times, Wade told the group: “I encourage each of you to give and give in some way.”

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