Much of this month's edition of the Bar Bulletin is devoted to articles on judicial selection and judicial election campaigns in Washington. These topics cause me to reflect upon what the people should look for in trial judges. Although there are many characteristics that define a good judge, I will focus on two important ones in this column.
First, as the American Bar Association noted in a report issued in 2003, good judges must uphold the rule of law. One of the tragic characteristics of totalitarian regimes is arbitrary action by a few without regard to established legal limitations. This sad practice is not true in our Republic.
Sometimes enforcing the rule of law means making difficult decisions that uphold the constitutions of the United States and Washington, but conflict with the passions of the moment. Luckily these matters are few in number, even though they draw much public attention. These decisions are never easy and no judge looks forward to issuing such a ruling.
More often the rule of law manifests itself in the daily difficult decisions that all judges make. Child custody cases (requiring the entry of a complicated document called a parenting plan), land use, employment discrimination, and criminal trials and sentencing, are just a few examples of areas of law requiring these daily decisions. These complex and demanding cases are handled with limited resources and on congested calendars.
In certain cases, including many family law cases, more and more decisions are made where one or more of the parties is not represented by counsel. Trial judges in these matters are guided by legislative enactments, court rules and appellate court decisions that define the limits of our discretion quite explicitly. Good judges balance all these demands and still keep the cases moving to resolution.
The second characteristic of a good judge that I will address is that we must be impartial. We must not make promises on how we will rule in certain cases prior to being selected to be a judge. We must endeavor to set aside biases or prejudices we may have before we reach our decisions. We must be good listeners and approach every case with an open mind, eager to learn the facts of a particular case.
As John Adams said in 1780, "It is the right of every citizen to be tried by judges as free, impartial and independent as the lot of humanity will admit."
