By M. Scott Carter
The Oklahoma judicial system -- and that of the United States -- is under attack, an aide to former Oklahoma Governor Henry Bellmon said Wednesday evening.
Andrew Tevington, Bellmon's former chief of staff, said the state's justice system faces "a systemic assault" because of the way Oklahoma chooses its judges.
Speaking during a Constitution Day seminar at the University of Oklahoma's College of Law, Tevington, currently deputy director of the Public Utilities Division of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, said the problems exist because Oklahoma uses a blended system of both appointment and election to choose its judges.
And that system, he said, isn't working.
"There's always going to be a problem with a judge facing lawyers who raised money for him," he said.
In addition, Tevington said the state's judicial nominating commission "tends to put forward the name of people who look like the judicial nominating commission."
"It seems to me we've given lawyers far too much power," he said. "And there are far too many former district attorneys sitting on the bench."
Tevington was joined by former U.S. Ambassador Edward Perkins, executive director of OU's International Programs Center, Federal Judge Lee West, the senior district judge for the Western District of Oklahoma, and Arnold Hamilton, editor of the Oklahoma Observer and a former political reporter for the Dallas Morning News.
But while the group agreed the judicial system faces serious challenges, at least one panelist said the system is considered the best on the globe by many other countries.
Edward Perkins, who served as U.S. ambassador to South Africa and the United Nations, said the American Constitution and the theory of justice make the nation strong and offer an example of a quality judicial system to other nations of the world.
Quoting a South African political leader, Perkins said the Constitution "has made (Americans) much better as a people than they would have been without it."
Judge West agreed.
"While the judiciary has returned bloodied from many battles, they are still there, fighting and vital to our government," he said.
The courts, West said, continue to face increasing hostility "from the legislative and executive branches."
"It's difficult because the courts hold neither the sword nor the purse over the community."
Hamilton said the court system must serve as a buffer for society.
"We count on the independent judiciary to serve as a check to the grab of power and to protect the rights of the few from the tyranny of the many."
Still, most of the panelists agreed that even though the judicial system strives to be independent, politics does influence both justices and their rulings.
"Take Roe versus Wade," Tevington said. "While I don't disagree with that decision, it was much more about public policy that it was about law."
West acknowledges that politics is a part of the system.
"Politics does play a role in judicial appointments," he said. "When I was an elected judge I liked to think that I was unaffected by politics, but in reality I believe it's impossible not to be affected."
And while West was the only panelist at the event who supported public financing of judicial elections, the group agreed that one of the country's biggest political problems was getting the public interested enough to participate in their government.
"It's very difficult to engage people," Hamilton said. "They're not paying attention."
M. Scott Carter 366-3545 scarter@normantranscript.com
