It's the commissions, not just the lawyers

The Knoxville News Sentinel has been doing a lot of reporting on judicial selection lately.

One recent article--("The politics behind picking Tennessee judges") describes the political slant of commission-based selection of judges (see also "A Report on the Political Balance of the Tennessee Plan").

The story also quotes Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey about how he intends to change the current process:

Ramsey hopes to amend the process before it 'sunsets' on July 1. 'I want to take the strings off,' which would allow the speakers to appoint members with less influence from attorneys' groups, he said.

Ramsey's right to criticize the stranglehold of the Lawyers' Lobby on selection of appellate judges in Tennessee, but replacing one commission of unelected, unaccountable people with another is not likely to remedy the problem of judicial activism and will definitely not remedy the fact that "The Tennessee Plan" is repugnant to our Constitution.