FIRST PRINCIPLES DICTATE JUDICIAL REFORM IN OKLAHOMA

When it comes to public policy, the best proposals are usually those vetted in the court of public opinion. Recently, Oklahoma Voice published an opinion piece from Dr. Keith Eakins and James Davenport, in which they criticize the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs’s (OCPA) judicial reform proposal. As an organization that has been thinking and writing about the need to abolish Oklahoma’s Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) for years, the objections are usually the same. Eakins and Davenport, to their credit, made us think more about the principles behind judicial selection in its various forms. In their piece, Eakins and Davenport acknowledged the validity of OCPA’s concerns, but nonetheless proposed half-hearted reforms that would do nothing to fix the main problems with the JNC.