PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2002
Contact: James Bopp, Jr., General Counsel
Phone 812/232-2434; Fax 812/235-3685
jboppjr@bopplaw.com, www.jamesmadisoncenter.org
 

The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will hear oral argument in the case of Republican Party of Minnesota, et al. v. Kelly et al., No. 01-521, on March 26, 2002.

The High Court will hear arguments to determine whether free speech rights are violated by a Minnesota rule that forbids a judicial candidate from "announc[ing] his or her views on disputed legal or political issues" during the course of an election campaign.  According to James Bopp, Jr., General Counsel for the James Madison Center who represents Petitioner Republican Party of Minnesota, "This canon prevents judicial candidates from saying anything important on any controversial issue, which, in turn, prevents voters from making an informed decision on election day."

Those who petitioned the Supreme Court do not dispute the need for an impartial judiciary.  "We believe that the need to protect the impartiality of the judiciary is fully protected by a separate ethics requirement that forbids judicial candidates from pledging that they will decide a case in a particular way," said Bopp.  "But the rule forbidding judicial candidates from simply announcing their views on political or legal issues goes much further effectively reducing election campaigns to recitations of name, rank, and serial number."