It was a moment in a Detroit courtroom that went viral. A judge ordered that a 15-year-old girl be handcuffed and dressed in a prison uniform. Her offense? She fell asleep in his courtroom during a class trip.
The incident was caught on the cameras in state District Court Judge Kenneth J. King’s courtroom, the Detroit Free Press reported, and outraged the teen’s mother, led to discipline for the judge and surfaced questions about judicial conduct.
Recently, access to courtroom broadcasts has expanded nationwide — largely because of the pandemic — giving viewers the opportunity to observe the judicial system from the comfort of their homes. Many people typically enter a courtroom when they are personally affected by the legal system, which isn’t the ideal time for voters — especially Black voters — to start paying attention to who might be chosen to sit on the bench. And in case you didn’t know, there are community groups around the country that train people to observe proceedings as a form of accountability in the criminal justice system.
In King’s Michigan courtroom, cameras filmed him at the bench while he asked the 15-year-old to explain why she fell asleep. The teen was in custody in a holding cell for two hours and her classmates later were asked to vote by a show of hands about whether she should go to jail, according to the child’s mother. The punishment was meant to send a message to other students about the importance of being attentive, King said.
After the episode, King was demoted to hearing cases in traffic court and is now facing a federal civil rights lawsuit from the teen’s mother. (Both King and the teen are Black.)
Earlier this month, a local news station revealed in an investigation that Kathleen Ryan, a judge on the Oakland County Probate Court covering 62 cities including Detroit, was caught on tape making racist and homophobic comments about Black people and the LGBTQ community, respectively. Ryan has been removed from her role.
A recent study found that judges who engaged in unethical behavior were viewed as a threat to disadvantaged groups. The two Michigan judges are examples of questionable conduct by judges in the state, and across the country, that underscores the importance of voter participation in judicial elections, legal experts say.
Lillian Henny Alexander, a candidate for family law judge in Harris County, Texas, along with D’Seanté Parks, a political strategist and founder of the app 1000 MORE, help us explain the process of state judicial elections.
Who qualifies to become a judge?
“There’s a lot of people I think would be great judges,” Alexander, 38, said. However, she says, they may not know: if they qualify, who the key players or groups are that could support their candidacy, whether they should align with a political party as nominees, or if they can successfully run as write-in candidates.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all pathway to becoming a judge. Judicial races vary by state and are often considered down-ballot contests.
One example of that is Hanif Johnson. At 27, he became the youngest person in Pennsylvania history to be elected to the judiciary. Johnson, now 34, doesn’t have a law degree — and didn’t need one to serve as magisterial district judge in Dauphin County. He was reelected last year with nearly 100% of the votes.
Qualifications for running for lower state court positions, such as magisterial district and housing courts, also vary. In 32 states, there’s no need for a law degree, and there is no mandatory minimum number of years practicing law to appear on the ballot. Although these judges do not handle felony cases, they are responsible for important community issues, such as setting bail and overseeing evictions.
“There are six primary types of judicial selection: partisan and nonpartisan elections, the Michigan method,” which is how King was elevated, “assisted appointment, gubernatorial appointment, and legislative elections,” according to Ballotpedia.
In five states — California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey — governors appoint state court judges. These nominees go through hearings and or votes similar to federal judges. When a judicial seat is vacant, the governor appoints a replacement, who must run for election when their term expires.
Most states mandate judges to retire between 65 and 75, though Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island allow lifetime service or the option to retire at 70. Other states have fixed terms of 6 to 10 years, requiring judges to be reappointed or reelected for additional terms. In Washington, D.C., judges serve 15-year terms.
Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Virginia do not hold judicial elections. In South Carolina, only probate court judges are elected, while other state court positions in South Carolina and Virginia are filled through “legislative elections,” where state lawmakers make the selections.
Does politics and justice mix?
After 13 years of practice in Harris County, Alexander decided to run for family law judge. Aware of the socioeconomic barriers in the community, including Houston, where 13% of households live below the federal poverty line, she took on clients who couldn’t afford hefty retainers elsewhere. Despite being warned that defeating an incumbent would be an expensive battle, she won the Democratic nomination in the primaries.
“Raising money is hard. And each race is harder,” she said. “Some races are really easy, and some races are hard.”
Alexander said judicial races are the hardest because the public often doesn’t realize how all justice systems affect them — until it’s too late.
In 2018, she learned how to fundraise by hosting events with her husband, charging $250 per person for other campaigns. When she decided to run, she reached out to those she had helped, and they, including Houston City Controller Chris Hollins, returned the favor.
“You get people’s 10-second moment, to where they might remember a name,” said Alexander, who is a namesake for her grandmother. She uses her nickname “Lily” in advertisements to use the shortened time with constituents to remember more important details about her.
“What was impressive, and shocked me, is how expensive it is to reach millions of voters,” Alexander said. “When you have a down-ballot race, you don’t have the resources to tell them everything about yourself.”
Alexander aims to share the fundraising lessons she has learned with future candidates, who also may not have political connections. She believes in giving back to the community, and knowing when to take a step back to allow others to have their turn.
An analysis by Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, highlights a surge in contributions from wealthy donors, increasing campaign spending, and diminishing judicial independence. This trend could erode public trust in state courts, the analysis found.
“Campaign donations to elect state court judges often are not acts of charity. Those millions come with strings attached, and the judges know it,” according to the analysis.
Campaign finance funds can go toward print, digital, and broadcast forms of advertising.
Judges’ mood determines sentences
Judges do much more than write decisions or opinions; they also sign warrants and officiate weddings. Working alongside their staff — including judicial secretaries, law clerks, scheduling clerks, and law school interns — they hear grievances from plaintiffs, listen to prosecutors recount difficult cases, consider petitions for reinvestigation, and hear defense attorneys argue why this will be the last time their client skips bail. Throughout this process, they ensure that all parties adhere to legal standards.
“When we talk about a higher number of Black people going to jail than white people, when we talk about longer sentences, Black people get longer sentences than white people. That is political,” Parks said.
Judges are sworn to uphold their state’s constitution and local laws, which are influenced by federal statutes and the U.S. Constitution. Their decisions shouldn’t be swayed by personal emotions or implicit biases, yet cases like the one in the 2016 study demonstrate that even judges can be affected.
She was referring to a 2016 study by researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research, which found that after a judge’s alma mater, Louisiana State University, lost a football game, Black people scheduled for sentencing in the following workweek received harsher punishments.
“People were getting longer and harsher sentences because — the rest of this is just me trying to make some logical sense of this — but obviously the judges were not in a good mood,” Parks said.
“This is an open book test”
There’s nothing worse than thinking you’re well-informed about your community, only to find yourself at the polling station in a “I’m With Her” shirt from 2016, staring at a list of candidates you’ve never heard of for a position you didn’t even know was taking applications.
“They’re not going in and saying, ‘Oh, this person had this much experience.’ They’re voting for a feeling, a name, a gut reaction. I don’t blame the average American for not knowing all these names,” said Alexander, inspired by a wave of 19 Black women who ran for judge in Harris County in 2018.
As mentioned earlier, judicial races differ by state, as are requirements, and term limit lengths. Those campaigns are usually followed by measures and referendums that voters known as “roll-off” voters frequently overlook, as research from Sister District, a grassroots organization that focuses on state legislature, shows. Their report found that nearly 80% of roll-off voters said they felt they didn’t know enough to decide between legislative candidates. And a separate poll by FiveThirtyEight in 2020 found that 25% of voters said they would almost never vote.
“I just encourage people not to shame themselves for what they don’t know, and instead, give themselves a lot of grace for where they’re at, and just start,” Parks said. “When we talk about civic empowerment, civic education, it’s important for people to just take stock of what they know and what they don’t know — don’t be hard on yourself. There are tools including 1000 MORE, including Ballotpedia.”
The 1000 MORE app connects users to their congressperson via email or social media, and tracks upcoming bills in Congress. It also allows users to donate to advocacy organizations that support a bill you do or don’t agree with. And, with a new partnership with Ballotpedia, the app will help users create a sample ballot before heading to the polls.
Voters can also go onto Vote411.org where they can enter their address a few weeks before an election, and generate a preview of their ballot.
“It’s kind of like having a cheat sheet. This is an open book test,” Parks said jokingly. “It just takes … 10 to 15 minutes beforehand to build a sample ballot that’s free.”
For now, Parks’ app focuses only on the 536 federal lawmakers and pending legislation in all stages, she said. She saw a need to create a tool for democracy after realizing at an early age that “our system was set up in such a way that people really don’t know what they don’t know.”
“This system was created by white men who owned slaves, and from its beginning, the enslaved Black people weren’t a part of the conversation. There have always been people left out of our political conversations,” Park said.
So, before you leave the house to go to the polls, do yourself a favor, and go to your state’s secretary of state website to learn more about the candidates and any ballot questions.
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