Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:28 AM
In light of John Grisham's new book, The Appeal
, The Wall Street Journal Law Blog posed an interesting question this week in the post John Grisham & Judicial Elections:
[John Grisham] is clearly trying to influence the legal system. What impact has he had on it through his books? For better, for worse?
According to the WSJ Law Blog's post, the question arises from the storylines of Grisham's books and Grisham's other writing and commentary. To wit,
The story [The Appeal] plays out with a chemical company found guilty of dumping toxic waste and liable for the deaths of scores of people in a fictional Mississippi town. The owner of the company tries to get out of paying a $41 million jury verdict by spending millions to help elect a Mississippi Supreme Court justice to influence the appeal.
“There’s a lot of truth in this story,” Grisham writes in an author’s note. “As long as private money is allowed in judicial elections we will see competing interests fight for seats on the bench.” This morning on the Today show, Grisham told Matt Lauer, “Electing judges is a bad idea.” His solution? “You start with a nonpartisan commission, you screen the judges, you get good people, you get them appointed. If they serve a number of years, let them run maybe for an election with no private money involved in the election. Keep the private money out. But you’ve got to clean it up.”
A series of comments have been left by readers on WSJ Law Blog's site. If so inclined, you can add your own two cents as well.
Post: John Grisham & Judicial Elections
Book: The Appeal