Yes.
What kind of elected judges do you think we would get in a nation that elected Barack Obama twice?
I don't think Cruz is proposing direct elections. He is proposing retention elections. Judges will still be appointed in the usual manner, they will just get tossed out if they piss off the public too much.
This would give whomever was President an opportunity to correct the make up of the court.
It's actually a very good idea. We could get rid of a lot of scum and idiots.
And in a nation that elected Barack Obama twice, Scalia, Alito and Thomas could fail to be retained.
No thank you. I’ll go with the Framers’ original intent.
For state supreme courts a total of 38 states have some type of judicial elections. The breakdown of selection systems for state high courts is as follows:
Seven (7) states have partisan elections (AL, IL, LA, NC, PA, TX, WV; All judges in both Illinois and Pennsylvania run in uncontested retention elections for additional terms after winning a first term through a contested partisan election)
Fourteen (14) states have nonpartisan elections (AR, GA, ID, KY, MI, MN, MS, MT, NV, ND, OH, OR, WA, WI; Ohio and Michigan have nonpartisan general elections, but political parties are involved with the nomination of candidates, who frequently run with party endorsements)
Seventeen (17) states have uncontested retention elections after initial appointment (AK, AZ, CA, CO, FL, IN, IA, KS, MD, MO, NE, NM, OK, SD, TN, UT, WY; All judges in New Mexico are initially appointed, face a contested partisan election for a full term, and then run in uncontested retention elections for additional terms)
The remaining 12 states grant life tenure or use reappointment of some type for their highest courts (CT, DE, HI, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, VA, SC)
In Alabama (for example), which has partisan elections for Supreme Court Justices and retention elections, all the Justices are Republicans and they voted 7-2 that the Alabama Secretary of State did not have the authority to investigate Barack Obama’s eligibility.