Judgepedia:Editorial discussions
From Judgepedia
| Writing articles |
|---|
|
| Writing tips |
| About judges About state judicial decisions State appellate judges Federal judges Help Desk • Cheatsheet Style guidelines • Discussions |
| Community • Tool box |
This is a discussion page for Judgepedia editors and writers. Please add any questions or comments below. If you sign your submission with four titles (like this: ~~~~), other editors will be able to tell who asked the question, and when. Leslie 15:06, 15 March 2008 (CDT)
Contents |
State blog listings
I'm new here, though I'm a long-time Wikipedia editor. I'm delighted to see the development of this comprehensive resource on the U.S. judiciary, and I'd like to link to many specific judges from my own sites, but I'm a little put off by what appears to be a conservative bias.
I read the article and discussion on the 2008 Michigan Supreme Court election, and though it clearly tilts toward the Republican candidate, I can see some efforts to achieve balance.
The picture is considerably more stark when I looked at the state blog listings, every one of which lists only conservative blogs. It appears that even the best-known liberal legal/political blogs in each state are excluded. See, for example, Michigan, Ohio, New York, or check any other state you're familiar with.
I like the idea of having state blogs listed, but why do the lists have to be so completely one-sided? Kestenbaum 10:54, 5 January 2009 (CST)
State supreme courts
I believe that each of the fifty-two articles about state supreme courts should include a section like the one that can be found in the New Jersey Supreme Court article on "Current membership".
The advantages of this chart are:
- It enables the reader to quickly see who appointed a particular state supreme court justice or, alternatively, how the person was elected.
- It enables the reader to see the partisan affiliation of the governor who appointed the justice.
- It enables the reader to see the partisan affiliation, if knowable or known, of the justice.
- It enables the reader to see when the person was sworn in, and when the person's current term expires.
- Note that you need to alter the title of the "appointed" column depending on whether the justice was, in fact, elected or appointed. In states where justices generally are elected, you'll still need your column heading to say something like "Appointed/elected" because even in states with elections, the justices are often appointed to fill vacancies.
Here is what the New Jersey charts looks like:
| Name | Sworn-in | Term expires | Mandatory retirement | Appointed by | Party affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Long | September 1, 1999 | None: Tenured | March 1, 2012 | Christine Todd Whitman (Republican) | Democrat |
| Jaynee LaVecchia | February 1, 2000 | None: Tenured | October 9, 2024 | Christine Todd Whitman (Republican) | Independent |
| Barry Albin | September 18, 2002 | September 18, 2009 | July 7, 2022 | Jim McGreevey (Democrat) | Republican |
| John Wallace | May 20, 2003 | May 20, 2010 | 2012 | Jim McGreevey (Democratic Party) | Democrat |
| Roberto Rivera-Soto | September 1, 2004 | September 1, 2011 | November 10, 2023 | Jim McGreevey (Democrat) | Republican |
| Helen Hoens | October 26, 2006 | October 26, 2013 | July 31, 2024 | Jon Corzine ( Democrat) | Republican |
| Stuart Rabner | June 29, 2007 | June 29, 2014 | 2031 | Jon Corzine ( Democrat) | Democrat |
Here is what a simpler chart looks like, from the Alaska Supreme Court:
| Name | Appointed | Term expires | Appointed by | Party affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warren Matthews | 1977 | 2010 | Jay Hammond (Republican) | - |
| Robert Eastaugh | 1994 | 2018 | Walter Hickel (Republican) | - |
| Dana Fabe | 1996 | 2010 | Steve Cowper (Democrat) | - |
| Walter Carpeneti | 1998 | 2012 | Tony Knowles (Democrat) | - |
| Daniel Winfree | 2007 | 2010 | Sarah Palin (Republican) | - |
Discussion
- Sometimes a JP contributor won't be able to find the date a judge was sworn in. In that case, the cell could contain a hyphen -- better to put in a hyphen than an "NA", since NA implies the information isn't available when more likely it is available somewhere but hasn't been discovered yet by the contributor.
- The "mandatory retirement" column is optional. Perhaps that column could be added later in states where it isn't entirely clear what the retirement dates are for a given justice, or whether there is a mandatory retirement date. I don't know, but I imagine that not all states have mandatory retirement dates for their appellate judges/justices.
- Ideally, if a governor appointed the justice, the name of the governor should be inter-wiki linked to that governor's entry on Wikipedia.
- Here's an example of such an inter-wiki link: [[Wikipedia:Jon Corzine|Jon Corzine]] which yields Jon Corzine.
- Generally, the order in which the justices appear in the chart should be dictated by when they became part of the court, with the justice with most seniority appearing first.
Style tools
- To center content in a row, type || style="text-align:center" | 1977. That would result in "1977" being centered in the row.
