The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments this week on whether Marin County’s system of selecting judges violated the US and Indiana Constitutions, as well as the Voting Rights Act.
A lawsuit has been filed asking a federal court to declare Marion County’s system of selecting judges unconstitutional.
The suit, filed last year, claimed Marion County’s judicial selection system violates the federal and state constitutions, as well as the Voting Rights Act.
In Marion County, Lake, and St. Joseph, voters do not directly elect judges as in Indiana’s other counties. Instead, the candidates are selected by a Judicial Nominating Committee. The committee submits three names to the Governor, who appoints Marion County Superior Court judges.
Residents do vote to retain judges, however.
The Plaintiffs, who lost at the trial court level, argued if elections for Superior Court judges in Marion County were free and open, as they are in most other counties in the State, minority residents would be able to elect judges of their choice. Instead, the Governor, who is elected in a state-wide election, not solely in Marion County, chooses Superior Court judges in Marion County.
The suit also claimed that such a system of judicial selection violates the Voting Rights Act since residents in most other counties can vote for Superior Court judges, as well as the First and 14th Amendments.
You can hear the oral arguments in the Leon-Tailored Audio above.
It runs for about 38 minutes.
