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Senator raises concerns about judicial nominating commission and public confidence in courts during call-up of Senate File 407
Summary
After Senator Whitver called up Senate File 407, a senator on the floor said judges have 'too much influence,' defended balanced nominating-commission membership of attorneys and citizen appointees, and read a message from a local attorney expressing concern about the bill.
Senator Whitver, the senator from Polk, called up Senate File 407 on the floor.
Following that call, a senator who was not identified by name in the transcript criticized perceived political influence in the judiciary and discussed the composition of judicial nominating commissions. “I think that, right now, the judge just has too much influence,” the senator said, adding that public confidence in the judicial system “has been in serious decline.”
The senator defended the current state-level nominating process as balanced. “Complaining about having attorneys on a nominating commission makes about as much sense as complaining about having doctors on the board of medicine,” the senator said. He described the current system as having “an equal number of attorneys selected by the bar and an equal number of ordinary citizens selected by the governor,” and said that balance helps keep local courts “free of the kind of political taint that we have seen at the state and federal levels.”
The senator also said he had received a text from a local attorney who is “very concerned about Senate File 407” and read portions of that text on the floor. He prefaced the reading with a disclosure about the sender’s past political opposition: “Full disclosure, he ran against me once upon time and gave me a pretty good run for my money.”
Nut graf: The floor remarks frame the debate over Senate File 407 in terms of public confidence in the judiciary and the appropriate balance of professional and citizen representation on judicial nominating commissions. The provided transcript excerpt records discussion and expressed concerns but does not show a formal vote or final action on Senate File 407.
Details: The excerpt records floor-level argumentation and a citation of messaging from a local attorney; it does not identify the speaker by name in the transcript for the substantive remarks, so quotes are attributed to an unnamed senator. No amendments or formal outcomes for Senate File 407 are included in the provided excerpt.
