NY Daily News Editorial on NY's Disgraceful Judicial System

POLITICS & JUSTICE DON'T MIX
EDITORIAL - THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS - September 29, 2003

Thomas Spargo is a prime example of the problem with New York's elected state Supreme Court justices. For many years a GOP election lawyer, he won an upstate town judgeship in 1999 and made it to Supreme a scant two years later. Throughout, he was a politician, cutting deals and angling for votes. Even though our judges are elected, state rules allow them to engage in only limited political activity. The amount of cutting and angling by Spargo violated those rules, and charges were brought against him. He sued in federal court. And he won, which meant the restrictions would be tossed out. Today, a panel of federal judges in Manhattan will hear the state's appeal. The lesson here is obvious: You can't have an election - all elections being political - while ensuring that the candidates do not play politics. It's an unworkable contradiction that can be remedied only by moving to a merit-appointed bench. Spargo's case is not a first. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Minnesota's rules against judicial candidates' making pronouncements on political issues. In that decision, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in a separate opinion, wrote that if a state chooses to elect its judges, it must live with the consequences - i.e., elected judges being involved in politics. O'Connor, a former Arizona state senator, is the only member of the high court who ever ran for office. She also sat as an elected and an appointed state judge. She knows that politics cannot be expunged from judicial elections - and she hasn't even met the scoundrels of New York's elected bench, where qualifications are irrelevant and success is a function of cozying up to party bosses. Under New York's unique-in-the-nation system, there are no primary elections. The bosses do all the nominating for Supreme Court. The elections are phony, and in too many cases, the judges are abysmal. By the way, even if Spargo prevails in the rules-case today, he is not out of hot water. Turns out that, as a town judge, he presided over criminal cases prosecuted by the Albany County district attorney - who happened to owe him $10,000. Spargo didn't disclose this in court and didn't recuse himself. That's a firing offense. Want more entertainment? Tomorrow, in his role as a Supreme Court justice, Spargo will testify before the Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections. He's the perfect witness. There is no public confidence in judicial elections - nor will there ever be.