The State of the Onion: Peeling Back the Layers of America’s Ambivalence Toward Judicial Independence
http://www.indianalawjournal.org/articles/44/1/The-State-of-the-Onion-Peeling-Back-the-Layers-of-Americaas-Ambivalence-Toward-Judicial-Independence/Page1.html
Charles G. Geyh
John F. Kimberling Chair in Law, Indiana
University School of Law–Bloomington. By Charles G. Geyh
Published on 10/6/2007
If the public is predisposed to resent
litigation outcomes that impose unwelcome restraints, it begs the question of
whether the public really wants an independent judiciary in the first place, or
would prefer judges who are subject to popular control and will render the
decisions that the public favors. The question of whether the public really
wants an independent judiciary has two parts: What is an independent judiciary?
And does the public want one? The first part seemingly invites a protracted
disquisition on the meaning of judicial independence, but that would be
unnecessarily digressive. For purposes here, it will suffice to isolate, from
the many facets of judicial independence that scholars have identified, those
of central relevance to the public judicial independence debate. With those
meanings in hand, I will then turn to the second part of the question and peel
back the layers of the public's views on judicial independence, like an onion,
to reveal the nature and extent of the public's ambivalence.. . . [for full article click the PDF below]