Vacancy on the Court of Special Appeals
The process of selecting and retaining (or not) judges in Maryland has recently become a bit on the controversial side. Ron Miller recently wrote about how he thinks contested judicial elections are about the dumbest way imaginable to pick judges. This has been news in the leagl community, in part because of an article written by retired Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Dana Levitz that appeared in the University of Baltimore Law Forum. Judge Levitz was sharply critical of the current process to the extent that it requires judges who are supposed to be unbiased and impartial to run in contested political elections.
The way the judicial selection process works in Maryland is that there are judicial nominating commissions for both appellate and trial courts. These comissions are made up of people selected by the Governor and elected by the state bar.
Individuals who wish to apply for judgeships are vetted and interviewed by the members of the applicable nominating comission. Those determined to be qualified become members of a pool whose names are submitted to the Governor to be considered for appointment to the bench. Once the Governor makes the appointment and the judge is sworn in, the new judge must run for retention in the next general election. This process works basically the same for both trial and appellate judges. Our next general election is in November. So any judges recently appointed by Governor O'Malley need to be ready to hit the ground running on the campaign trail so they are prepared to run in November.
This process is playing out now for applicants to the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. The way that court is set up, there are seats dedicated to certain geographically determined appellate circuits, as well as "at large" seats. Right now there is a vacancy on the court for the seat dedicated to the Fourth Appellate Circuit, which covers Prince George's County.
The following have been vetted by the nominating commission and have been presented to the Governor for consideration:
Honorable Toni Evon Clarke
Adrienne Morgan Davis
Honorable Melanie Marva Shaw Geter
Honorable Michele Denise Hotten
Mark Kotlarsky
Honorable Thurman Haywood Rhodes
Clarke, Geter & Hotten are sitting judges on the Prince George's County Circuit Court. Rhodes is a judge on the District Court for Prince George's County. Davis and Kotlarsky are private attorneys.
It remains to be seen which candidate will be selected. Or, the Governor may decide that he doesn't like the list and ask that the vacancy be readvertised. It will be interesting to see how the selection process plays out.
