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Opinion
Judge
quotas no answer for female or black bids
March
21, 2005
Efforts
continue in the South Carolina Legislature to elect more black
judges for state courts. Meanwhile, two black women are
running for a circuit court seat.
It may be hard for either
to be elected by their fellow lawmakers. They haven’t elected
a black candidate in a contested race in two years. Still,
these two women, and other black candidates, should get the
same serious consideration as any candidate, regardless of
gender or color.
One black lawmaker has introduced a bill
that would remove a cap on the number of nominees for each
judicial seat. It is now three, and advocates for more black
judges believe that without the cap it would make it easier
for black candidates to win more seats on the bench.
IN THE STATE SENATE, THOUGH, where a
similar bill died last year, the chairman of the state
judicial screening committee says he’d rather see the cap
raised to five instead of being removed. What’s wrong with
allowing any number of candidates to run for open seats? If
that improves chances for more black candidates to sit on the
courts, wouldn’t that make the playing field a little more
level?
What does appear inappropriate, however, is the
argument about numbers. It’s repeated often that while the
state population is 30 percent black, only six percent of the
judges are. Also, 51 percent of the people in the state are
female but only 17 percent hold judicial seats.
THAT ARGUMENT SMACKS OF quotas, and
quotas are nothing more than built-in fences that perpetuate
segregation, no matter what is involved.
Remove the cap on
judicial candidates. Let the few or the many run. Forget
gender and race and concentrate on qualifications. Let that be
the only consideration.
Regardless of what anyone might
say, though, to do that will require supporters of the
historic and continuing “good ol’ boy” system in state
government to all of a sudden undergo an attitudinal
adjustment and develop a degree of open-mindedness that is
hard to come by ….. especially in politics. If anyone is going
to talk about how fair they and the system are, though,
they’ll have to change. For the better. Thus far, though, no
one has shown any signs of improving in that regard.
Editorial expression in this feature represents
our own views.
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