NCPE Town Hall Meeting

Join us on June 28, 2008 for the Third NCPE Town Hall Meeting.

NCPE in the News: 2008

"Given $50,000 He Decides to Run" (Las Vegas Sun)

Acting President Julie Tousa on Jon Ralston's "Face to Face: Ethics Complaint"

Meet the Acting President of NCPE, Julie Tousa

"New Watchdog of Public Ethics Continues Enforcing Vital Unwritten Law" (Las Vegas Review Journal)

"Partying Away As Taxpayers Pay and Pay" (Las Vegas Sun)

Ethics Legislation 2007

NCPE at the 2007 Nevada State Legislature: Summary and Details

"Article 6 Commission" to study and recommend improvements in the Nevada judiciary
See Dr. Craig Walton's summary of May Meeting

NCPE statement about the danger of big donors contributing to Supreme Court justice election campaigns.

Judicial Ethics & the Complaint Processes

Craig Walton's letter, to the Las Vegas Business Journal in favor of the new plan for judicial selection

Candidate Pledge

Email NCPE Treasurer

Judicial Accountability

Craig Walton's letter, to the Las Vegas Business Journal in favor of the new plan for judicial selection

Judges: Standards?

Today in Nevada, judges are selected by a corrupt money-chasing process. Since 1998, we have raised the ante on the cost of one Supreme Court seat 300% - from over $174,000 to over $543,000. Judges and candidates are forced to seek money, and attorneys and litigants are forced to give money to avoid risking a bad day in court.
Many judges and the President of the Nevada State Bar have asked that we change this corrupting practice. In 2007 the Legislature passed SJR2, which if passed again and then ratified by the public, would create two public + professional committees: [1] the first would receive nominations for a judgeship and evaluate them using professional standards, sending the best of those nominees to the Governor for appointment. [2] The second committee of public + professionals would create standards for judicial performance review, the results of which would then be used by the public to vote in a retention election for all judges previously selected.
Some argue that politicians and judges are equally chosen by the same standards. But as the 2007 ABA Model Code for Judicial Conduct explains,

Governors and legislators are not expected to be independent of the people; to the contrary, these officials are expected to represent their respective constituencies by acting on the policy preferences of those who elected them. Judges, however, are different. Once voters policy preferences are enacted into rules of law, it is up to judges to ensure that those rules of law are faithfully interpreted and upheld .... the rule of law would be corrupted if interest groups, public officials, powerful private citizens, or fleeting majorities of the public could intimidate a judge into interpreting a law to their liking or reading a law out of existence altogether. Unlike governors and legislators, judges must be, as John Adams urged us, as  independent as the lot of humanity will admit.

Craig Walton
Emeritus Professor of Ethics & Policy Studies, UNLV
President, Nevada Center for Public Ethics

Back to top

Go to Judicial Accountability News

Return to News/Reports/Archives Main Page