O’Connor backs changing how Nevada selects judges
By Ray Hagar, Reno Gazette-Journal
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor continued her push Wednesday to change the way Nevada selects its district judges and Supreme Court justices.
O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, is backing Ballot Question 1, which would end Nevada’s system of electing judges and replace it with a system where judges would first be appointed by the governor after a review by a judicial committee.
Sandra Day O'Connor
Those appointed judges, however, would face voters in a retention election within two years of their appointment and would remain on the job if 55 percent of Nevada’s voters approve of them. After their initial retention vote, judges would then face the voters every six years in an election where they would run against their record — not an opponent.
O’Connor spoke to the editorial board of the Reno Gazette-Journal on Wednesday, saying the proposed system would do away with the election of unqualified candidates and would remove politics and cash contributions from judicial election campaigns.