A recent editorial in USA Today addresses one of the problems that keep me irritated when I let my mind wander into the political swamp. In several states, Republicans are trying out various attempts to politicize their judicial systems, which are probably already political enough.
My personal preference for divided government (either state or federal) requires the executive and legislative branches to be split between the two major parties, with the judicial branch being independent and non-partisan. As I see it, that's the formula for an effective system of checks and balances.
When the judicial system starts leaning too far in one partisan direction or the other, it throws everything else out of kilter. I could make an argument that if there had been one less conservative Republican on the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, there might never have been a war in Iraq. Of course, we'll never really know now.
In a perfect world, there would be a method for either (A) electing judges in non-partisan voting, or (B) having them appointed by independent panels instead of by governors or presidents. As long as politicians want to sneak bad laws past voters, they'll keep trying to stack the courts with hacks who'll vote the party line.
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