June 19, 2006

By Margie Wood
The Pueblo Chieftain

Colorado Bar opposes term limits for judges

Elizabeth Starrs, a Denver lawyer who will begin her term as president of the Colorado Bar Association on July 1, says a proposal to term-limit judges is the biggest issue facing the legal profession this year.

Starrs was in Pueblo on Friday to visit the local bar association, and plans to visit every other local bar in the state during her term. David Lytle of Pueblo is in line to succeed her next year.

Starrs noted that Colorado is marking the 40th anniversary this year of its merit-based system of appointing judges, which replaced direct, partisan election of judges. Under this system, a nominating commission in each judicial district considers applicants for a judicial vacancy and recommends up to three candidates to the governor. The governor appoints one, and that individual must stand for retention in an election within two years.

There are actually two, slightly different initiatives to impose term limits on Court of Appeals and Supreme Court judges, Starrs said, although only one is expected to make it onto the ballot.

One of the proposals would make term limits retroactive for sitting judges, and if that were to pass, "Five of the seven justices on our Supreme Court would be gone - we wouldn't have a Supreme Court until new appointments were made," she said.

The state bar association supported the merit system and continues to support it, she said. Lawyers see the term-limit proposals as an attack on the independent, impartial judiciary.

"Term limits are very popular for legislators and executive branch officials, but judges are different," she said. "We want our judges to be accountable only to the law - what I want to happen in an individual case should govern the way the system works.

"This issue is about the system, not the individual judges. The question is whether the system works well, and it does."

Starrs noted that judges at all levels need to stand for retention periodically, and a judicial performance commission in each district evaluates them and publishes the results in the voters’ Blue Book. And judges have a mandatory retirement at age 74.

Beyond the philosophical principle, Starrs said, there are practical reasons to reject term limits for judges.

"What lawyer would be willing to give up his whole practice, when he knows he won’t have the job in eight years?" she said. "You’re not going to get the best and the brightest with a law like this."

After the election, whatever its result, the state bar plans to initiate a leadership training program for lawyers around the state, teaching them how to provide leadership within the law and within their communities, Starrs said.

"Life has become so busy, and so insular," she explained. "We all have to become more invested in our communities."