Court Opinion

ID: 9483918
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:35:26.350076+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:55.010702
License: Public Domain

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
While I generally agree with and am pleased to join Judge Keith’s compelling opinion in this case, I write separately to note my interpretation of First Amendment law in this area and to express my concerns with the current practice of Ohio’s Governor regarding interim judicial appointments.
Judge Keith’s majority opinion makes a persuasive argument for expanding or illuminating the phrase “hiring decisions,” as stated in Rutan v. Republican Party of Ill., 497 U.S. 62, 78, 110 S.Ct. 2729, 2739, 111 L.Ed.2d 52 (1990), by including gubernatorial appointments within the contours of that phrase. I think that it is correct to conclude that, in general, a gubernatorial appointment is merely a type of hiring decision.
After determining that gubernatorial appointments fall within the meaning of “hiring decisions,” the issue then becomes whether a governor’s interim judicial appointments may be made based on party affiliation. As Judge Keith’s opinion notes, the present analysis used in this area of First Amendment jurisprudence requires the courts to determine whether a position of public employment is a “policymaker” position. In addition, the opinion allows that the ultimate inquiry is whether the Governor can demonstrate that party affiliation is an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved.
Judicial appointments present an interesting twist on that analysis. For example, while a judge may be a “policymaker” in a broad sense, a judge is not a “policymaker” for the appointing governor. Rather, the judiciary is an independent arm of the government, unconnected by oath or duty to the governor’s office or political party. Once appointed, a judge does not and should not answer to a governor’s directives or opinions. Therefore, the link between an appointee judge and the appointing governor is fundamentally different from the link between a governor and other gubernatorial appointees who are appointed to fulfill the political or policy objectives of a governor. Although it discussed the constitutionality of having judges on a non-partisan ballot, the Ohio Supreme Court, in State ex rel. Weinberger v. Miller, 87 Ohio St. 12, 99 N.E. 1078, 1085 (1912), provided eloquent language highlighting the difference between the judiciary and other branches of government:
Legislative and executive officers are selected for the avowed purpose of promulgating definite principles and methods of government advanced by [their] respective parties____ No partisan political platform can be written for the judge. He is charged with the interpretation and the administration of the law as he finds it. He has no voice in framing it. He must not depart from the plain provisions thereof, no matter how much he may be opposed to the principles or purposes of it. In the discharge of his duty, a judge is not concerned with party platforms or party expediency. In his official capacity he can serve no party, promulgate no partisan theories of government, encourage no partisan economic measures.
(Emphasis added.)
Similarly, it cannot be seriously contended that being a member of a certain party, *165in this case the Republican Party, should be a requirement for the effective performance of being a judge. See Rutan, 497 U.S. at 91, 110 S.Ct. at 2746 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (“if there is any category of jobs for whose performance party affiliation is not an appropriate requirement, it is the job of being a judge, where partisanship is not only unneeded but positively undesirable”).
Notwithstanding the above, persons elevated to the bench do not leave their ideals, life experiences, and political philosophies behind. Consider the reflections of the late Justice Benjamin Cardozo:
There has been a certain lack of candor in much of the discussion ... or perhaps in the refusal to discuss it, as if judges must lose respect and confidence by the reminder that they are subject to human limitations. I do not doubt the grandeur of the conception which lifts them into the realm of pure reason, above and beyond the sweep of perturbing and deflecting forces. None the less, if there is anything of reality in my analysis of the judicial process, they do not stand aloof on these chill and distant heights; and we shall not help the cause of truth by acting and speaking as if they do. The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of man do not turn aside in their course and pass judges by.
Benjamin N. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process, 167-68 (1921). Almost every decision rendered by a judge has been influenced by various factors, including one’s general philosophy on the implementation and interpretation of the law. See Kurowski v. Krajewski, 848 F.2d 767, 770-71 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 926, 109 S.Ct. 309, 102 L.Ed.2d 328 (1988). This is not to say that a judge may set one’s own agenda or create one’s own policies; however, it would ignore reality to suggest that a judge is not influenced by an infinite number of factors. “If you ask how [the judge] is to know when one interest outweighs another, I can only answer that he must get his knowledge just as the legislator gets it, from experience and study and reflection; in brief, from life itself.” Id. at 113. Moreover, as a direct result of those factors, a judge does create a particular brand of governmental policy.
Any person charged with the appointment of a member of the judiciary should be aware of those factors which may suggest how a person may treat an issue. That person should not be prevented from choosing a prospective judge based on that prospective judge’s general views on the implementation and interpretation of the law. In Ohio, it is the governor who is charged by the Ohio Constitution with appointing interim judges, see Ohio Const. art. IV, § 13. Therefore, a governor should be free to choose persons who share (or do not share) his/her general philosophy on the implementation and interpretation of the law.
In determining a prospective judge’s general philosophy, a governor should be able to look at various aspects of that person’s life. Undoubtedly, there are an infinite number of ways to determine a judge’s general philosophy. Party affiliation may provide some insight to the types of philosophies a prospective judge maintains. As a result, I absolutely agree with Judge Keith that political affiliation may be an appropriate factor to consider when making interim judicial appointments.
In addition, because I find that judges are unique types of “policymakers” and that party affiliation may be an appropriate factor to consider when making a judicial appointment, I find that the general philosophy underlying Rutan does allow a governor to make judicial appointments with party affiliation in mind.
Nonetheless, I am gravely troubled by the Ohio Governor’s practice of considering or appearing to only consider members of his own party in filling these vacancies. Using political affiliation as a factor in filling appointments is drastically different from using political affiliation as an exclusive means of appointing judges. The latter appears to be this case by virtue of the requirement of aspirants to solicit the favor of a political organization. The operative system of routing prospective judicial appointees through a political organization *166is reminiscent of Tammany Hall (the headquarters of the Tammany Society of New York, a political organization which sought municipal political control by methods associated with corruption and .bossism), from which candidates for political office were required to obtain validation. While I am not implying that the Governor’s use of Republican county chairpersons be equated with the big bosses of Tammany Hall, the process of using political affiliation as the exclusive means of appointing judges certainly has the tendency to reinforce that perception. Although the present state of First Amendment jurisprudence may deem such a practice constitutional, the Governor’s present practice makes me wonder whether the federal judiciary ought to reassess the propriety of the First Amendment analysis as stated in Rutan as it relates to this type of case.