Judicial Accountability

While judicial reform and accountability laws should be ammended to each state's constitution, big money interests are fighting tooth and nail to prevent this from occuring. Gee, I wonder why...

Backers of a South Dakota initiative designed to reform the state’s courts by holding judges accountable for their rulings are licking their wounds after the amendment’s defeat at the polls. Organizers behind the measure said they had to contend with a well-funded propaganda mill that ran nonstop to defeat the proposed state constitutional amendment.

Still, backers say they will not give up and hope that this revolutionary measure will spread like wildfire across the country.

The onslaught against Amendment E, known officially as the Judicial Accountability Initiative Law, or JAIL, featured several key players. The South Dakota State Bar figured prominently in the anti-amendment movement, reportedly spending at least $1 million. The bar’s allies included the insurance lobby, Citibank, which donated $50,000 and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which donated $15,000. All of the 105 state legislators signed a resolution opposing the amendment.

Were South Dakota Voters Duped?
Well-funded 'insider' efforts sabotages judicial reform.

Citizen Confidence in State Governmental Institutions - PDF

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like whitened sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Thus ye also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
Matthew ch. 23:27-28