by Ronisha Johnson

Created on: June 13, 2009   Last Updated: June 15, 2009

In Ohio, Judges run campaigns to be elected into court. They raise money like politicians do and then refuse to recuse when a donor of their campaign has a case before them. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, thirty-eight states appoint their Judges. Should Ohio follow suit and begin to appoint their Judges as well? Should Ohio Judges be allowed to sit on a case of a campaign donor?

Judges can decide for themselves whether they will or will not recuse on a case of a donor. In my opinion I feel that Judges should have recusal standards. If a Judge is requested to recuse a case for various reasons, including the fact that the parties involved include a donor, then there should be a standard that assists the Judge in making the decision or forcing the Judge to recuse. It is unfair that Judges favor the cases of their campaign donors. Is this to say that if I personally donate a large sum of money to over half of the Judges currently sitting on the bench in Cuyahoga county that whenever I appear before them they would favor in my case? If that is the case then Ohio Judges will have no problem raising campaign funds once the word is public.

There are two solutions to this problem. If Ohio began to appoint its Judges then there is no need for Judges to campaign to be elected. Instead, Judges would be appointed on a merit bases. According to the Ohio Chamber of Commerce website, the majority of Ohioans vote for Judges simply because of the Judge's name, geography, gender and/or recognition. Ohioans don't have the much needed knowledge of knowing the specific details of each Judge.

If Ohio were to impose recusal standards that would force Judges to step aside from cases that involve campaign donors this would also help the situation. Judges would no longer be put in a situation to have to think about rather or not they should recuse the case. Leaving the decision solely to the Judge has created the problems that are currently arisen. Recusal standards demanding Judges to recuse the case would be fair to both parties involved in the case.

Since it seems that Ohioans do not want to forfeit their right to elect judicial officials the state should take the responsibility of enforcing recusal standards. Isn't it up to the legislative branch to make the laws? Since no one is above the law, Judges need to be forced to recuse cases of campaign donors. It is not only fair it is ethical.

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