In Wyoming, we citizens have a say in which justices and judges remain in office during retention elections. However, this is a difficult process.
In deciding whether to vote yes or no on a particular judge whose term is expiring, we need to review the opinions they have on particular cases. This will give us a good indication of whether a particular judge is deciding cases based on the plain text of the laws or is using a process based on a personal view of what he or she thinks the law means or should say.
Those opinions are usually not available online. A citizen needs to know which cases to look at, take time off of work to go to the district court administrative office or State Supreme Court office and sit at a computer for a block of time to read and try to understand the opinion.
If a person does not have time, a copy of an opinion can be obtained which costs a fee that can be hundreds of dollars if the opinion is many pages in length.
If then, more citizens vote no than yes and the judge is not retained, the Governor chooses a new judge from a list of three names provided to him or her by the Judicial Nominating Commission which is composed of a majority of lawyers including the Chief Justice of the Wyoming State, three members selected by the Wyoming Bar Association plus three non-lawyers selected by the Governor.
https://www.wyocourts.gov/committees-and-boards/judicial-nominating-commission/
It is possible that the new judge appointed will use the same decision-making process as the former judge by reading words into law that do not exist and legislating from the bench.
Our current system needs to be reformed so that the State Senate conducts a vetting process with hearings just like our federal system.
~ Ross.Schriftman
