How Judges are Selected in South Dakota and Pennsylvania

The State Judicial Selection Process
Pennsylvania
Supreme, Superior and Commonwealth Courts
The Judiciary of Pennsylvania consists of a supreme court, superior court, commonwealth court, court of common pleas and minor courts. The commonwealth, superior and supreme courts are appellate courts responsible for hearing and reviewing the appeals of cases that have already been heard at lower level courts, with Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court being the highest court level for appeals to go to.
Selection process. When it comes to selecting judges for the different Pennsylvanian courts, there are numerous spots to fill: there are seven justices of the state’s supreme court, 15 judges on the superior court, nine judges on the commonwealth court, and 439 judges in the court of common pleas. All of them are selected in the same manner: they run in partisan primaries which are then followed by a general election process, in which the winners of the partisan primaries compete. All elected judges serve terms of 10 years, and at the end of their term, the retention vote takes place if the judge wishes to continue to serve (Judicial Selection in Pennsylvania, 2018).
Retention process. The way in which judges are retained is different in Pennsylvania than in most states—that is because Pennsylvania operates a “yes-no retention election” process for judges who “wish to continue serving” (Judicial Selection in Pennsylvania, 2018). The retention election process is a “periodic process whereby voters are asked whether an incumbent judge should remain in office for another term. The judge, who does not face an opponent, is removed from the position if a percentage of voters (often 50 percent) indicate that he or she should not be retained” (Retention Election, 2018). The retention process is used for judges have been elected in the state and the purpose of this process is to take the political pressure of having to run for office every election cycle off of judges and allow them to focus on doing their jobs (Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, 2018).
Qualifications. Qualifications that judges must meet in the state of Pennsylvania include: 1) being a member of the Bar of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (mandatory except for magisterial district judges) (The Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, 2018); 2) judges must adhere to the Code of Judicial Conduct in the Pennsylvania Rules of Court, the “Rules Governing Standards of Conduct of Magisterial District Judges,” and other court rules and orders set by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, as well as standards identified in the Pennsylvania Constitution. Failure to abide by these rules, regulations and standards may result in removal from office, suspension or disciplinary action for misconduct while in office (The Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, 2018). Other qualifications to serve as a judge in Pennsylvania are that the judge must have lived in a state residence for at least one year prior to running (and must have lived within the district for at least one year if running for common pleas court), and must be under the age of 70 (75 is the retirement age for judges in Pennsylvania) (Judicial Selection in Pennsylvania, 2018).
Limited Jurisdiction Courts
Limited jurisdiction courts (magisterial districts and municipal court) are a little different in the fact that these judges only serve six year terms and are not subject to retention elections following the conclusion of their term. Instead, they must face re-election again. The election process is the same as will all other judges in the state—partisan elections consisting of primaries followed by a general election take place for the selection of the judge. Vacancies are filled by the governor. Qualifications for judges of limited jurisdiction courts include: being a local resident for at least one year, being a member of the state bar, being older than 21, and being under the age of 75 (Judicial Selection in Pennsylvania, 2018).
South Dakota
In South Dakota, the process of selecting judges is somewhat different. In this state, the selection of state court judges is conducted via a hybrid process consisting of both appointments and elections. However, at every level of South Dakota’s judicial system, the process is different—from the supreme court level to the circuit and magistrate courts.
Supreme Court
Selection process. At the supreme court level in South Dakota, the five justices who preside over this court are selected (i.e., appointed) by the governor, who picks from a list that is given him by the South Dakota Judicial Qualifications Commission. The list must consist of at least two names so that the governor actually has a choice in the selection. Judges who are appointed to the supreme court of the state serve an initial three year term, and then, as in Pennsylvania, they run in a yes-no retention election during the next general election. Following that, the term of these justices lasts for eight years at a stretch (Judicial Selection in South Dakota, 2018).
Qualifications. Qualifications required to serve as a justice on South Dakota’s Supreme Court consist of: being a United States citizen and resident of the state; having acted as a voting resident with the respective district; licensed to practice law in the state, and being under eth age of 70. It is state law that no justice on the supreme court in the state serve beyond the age of 70 (SD Codified L. 16-1-4.1, 2012). These judges are also subject under article V of the state constitution to be investigated if complaints against them with respect to improper conduct arise, in which event a Judicial Qualifications Commission “hears and investigates complaints, recommending to the Supreme Court whether disciplinary actions should be taken. If the Commission finds a complaint is justified, it may recommend that the judge be censured, removed from office or retired” (UJS, 2018, p. 19).
Circuit Courts
Selection process. There are 41 seats to fill in South Dakota’s circuit courts, and these seats are filled via nonpartisan elections, in which the judges are selected by voters to serve eight year terms, at the end of which the judges must run for re-election if they wish to continue to serve. This is different from the state of Pennsylvania, where judges simply face a retention election, like with South Dakota’s supreme court. The chief judge of each circuit court in the state is selected by the supreme court chief justice who is in turn selected by his peers on the court and serves for four years. Chief judges of circuit courts serve for as long as the chief justice of the supreme court wishes them to remain in that position (Judicial Selection in South Dakota, 2018).
Qualifications. The qualifications to serve on the circuit courts in South Dakota are the same for serving on the supreme court. There is no difference other than that judges must be a resident of their circuit and cannot reside outside the circuit that they oversee.
Magistrate Courts
Judges of the magistrate courts in South Dakota are selected by the circuit court judges and their terms vary for area to area. There is no similar selection process in the state of Pennsylvania.
Comparison
All judges in Pennsylvania must be elected by voters. They run in partisan elections, with judges of the respective parties facing off against other party members for the primary vote. The winner of the primary proceeds to the general election. Once the judge wins the general election, he thereafter faces only a retention election, unless the judge serves on the bench of a limited jurisdiction court, in which case he must re-run for general election at the end of each term. This is different from in the state of South Dakota, where judges at every level are selected differently. In Pennsylvania, the selection process is the same across the board and only differs in the follow-up elections. In South Dakota, voters only select judges who serve circuit courts. The judges who serve the magistrate courts and the supreme court are selected by the circuit court chiefs and the governor, respectively.
In terms of qualifications, these are mostly similar. Removing a judge from his seat is the work of the Supreme Court in each state, and every judge is subject to a similar set of standards of conduct, which, if violated and reported will instigate a review process, at the end of which the states’ Supreme Court will either remove the judge from the bench or impose some other form of disciplinary action. For both states, the process of removal of a judge is the same.
The Best System
The state with the best system in place depends upon one’s inclination towards how important voters are to the process. Should voters have the right to choose every juddge? Or should some judges be chosen by the judges selected by the people? In Pennsylvania, the voters select all the judges. In South Dakota, voters only select some of the judges, and the other judges are appointed by the governor or selected by the circuit court chiefs. These two states have similar qualifications standards and methods for removing judges from the bench should improper conduct allegations be made and an investigation opened. Other than that, however, the only main difference between the two states’ systems is the process of selection of judges for the seats on the upper and lower level courts and the process of re-election.
In my view, the best system is the system in Pennsylvania, as it allows the voters to have a say in who is put upon the benches of all the courts. This means that judges are held accountable by the people in their districts and the people have the final say in whether they want this judge to hold office at the conclusion of a term. Additionally, the manner in which these judges stand for re-election is also favorable, as most of the judges only face a retention election, which is a yes-no vote for whether the judge should stay in the post. This allows the judge to focus on judicial matters as opposed to election matters, campaigning, politics and so on. As campaigning can take a great deal of time, it is helpful that the retention election process is the primary method of selection for judges who have completed one term in office. For limited jurisdiction judges, it is different as they must always run for election again in the general election. Nonetheless, this method is still preferable to the South Dakota method, which allows many judges to simply be appointed by the court chiefs or the governor.
References
Judicial Selection in Pennsylvania. (2018). Retrieved from
https://ballotpedia.org/Judicial_selection_in_Pennsylvania
Judicial Selection in South Dakota. (2018). Retrieved from
https://ballotpedia.org/Judicial_selection_in_South_Dakota
Retention Election. (2018). Retrieved from https://ballotpedia.org/Retention_election
SD Codified L. 16-1-4.1. (2012). Retrieved from
https://law.justia.com/codes/south-dakota/2012/title16/chapter01/16-1-41
The Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. (2018). Retrieved from
http://www.pacourts.us/learn/how-judges-are-elected
UJS. (2018). Unified Judicial System of South Dakota. Retrieved from
http://www.ujs.sd.gov/uploads/SecondCircuit/bluebook.pdf