The Tennessee Senate recently approved a proposed amendment to the Tennessee Constitution that would allow the governor to select the judges that sit on the Tennessee Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. The proposed amendment was approved by an overwhelming margin (29-2) in the Senate and will now go on to the House of Representatives for consideration. If approved by the House by at least a two-thirds majority, the amendment should go before the voters of Tennessee in 2014.
Since 1971, the governor has picked the state’s appellate judges from a list of recommendations provided by the Judicial Nominating Commission, with the judges running unopposed in “retention elections” every eight years. Retention elections have been upheld by the courts as meeting the Tennessee Constitutional requirement that judges be elected. (See Article VI of the Tennessee Constitution.) This procedure only applies to the Tennessee Supreme Court justices and appellate court judges; trial court judges are elected directly by the voters in each judicial district.
The proposed amendment provides in part that: “Judges of the Supreme Court or any intermediate appellate court shall be appointed for a full term or to fill a vacancy by and at the discretion of the governor; shall be confirmed by the Legislature; and thereafter, shall be elected in a retention election by the qualified voters of the state.” The governor would still pick a candidate from a list of recommendations provided to him or her, but the General Assembly would play a role by forcing candidates to go through a confirmation process similar to the once conducted by Congress for judges appointed by the President.
