The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-03-17
TUESDAY, MARCH IT, 1881
Bi-Partisan Courts

In setting up bipartisan police court in New Haven Governor Cross is acting quite in accordance with his beliefs and those of most of the residents of Connecticut who are dissatisfied with the pickering over court positions that is heard every time the legis- lature assemblies. The city court of New Haven is the only one in this state whose judges are nominated by the governor. In all other cities and towns the court heads are named by the general assembly. As in the case of the court of common pleas, not to mention superior and supreme courts. the governor believes in giving equal representa- ton to each party, sentiment in which former republican executives placed little faith.
 In making five appointments to the com- mon pleas bench the governor named two democrats. Their appointments, of course. are subject to the approval of the legislature. but we are fairly confident that they will be approved as both appointees are capable of fulfilling the trust placed in them and were not named merely to satisfy party politics. In the case of the New Haven judgeshps Gov ernor Cross seems to be meeting opposition from within his own party New Haven democrats are said to be aroused because he merely named one democrat and not two. It would have been mistake. the same one that our republican rulers have been making for years.
 Most editors are as one on the subject ot politics and the judiciary. It is not Tn good taste to link judicial appointees with political connivance. However. in the last decade or more the courts of the state have been grad ually stripped of democratic attaches. In the lower courts there are none. The compen- sation courts were stripped of the last one. when Mayor Buckingham of Bridgeport was forced to resign. The common pleas courts contain no representative of the democratic party. On the superior and supreme court bsnclaes there are few. They could be eeunted on the fingers of one hand That IS without doubt an unfair situation and has merely existed because the republicans had absolute control of the appointments.
 Now that the democratic party has secured footfold in the affairs of state the situation is changing. Republicans realize that Cover nor Gross can weaken their hitherto unshat- terable organization unless they frustrate his plans. We have watched their efforts to curb his powers of appointment. We have listened to the row over the New Haven cou-t judge ships. Through it all the governor has main- tained his dignity and aplomb. refusing to be startled by the threats of his opponents or moved by the pleas of his parrymen who want to reverse the situation completely. To do that would be to sacrifice the meagre gains the democratic party has just made. It must convince the state that is of different mould than the all-powerfu republican machine whose hold on the state government must be lifted if all men are to have an equal voice in their government.
 The courts are not for party spells. They should be manned by the best talent Tn the state. And that can be found equally distrib- uted in the ranks of both the democratic and republican parties. It is now found in one to the exclusion of the other Bipartisan courts are evidently necessary in this land of steady habits. We compliment the executive who can produce them.