newman@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Ron Newman) (05/19/86)
Judges are elected in several of the United States, including Ohio, where I grew up. In some of the other states, such as California, judges periodically come up for "confirmation" elections. The sitting judges has no opponent but the voters get to vote "yes" or "no". If the majority vote "no", a new judge is appointed (or elected--I'm not sure which, since this never happened while I lived in California). This November, Rose Bird, the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, comes up for reconfirmation. Right-wingers there have targeted her for defeat because of her opposition to the death penalty. Unfortunately, she is likely to lose the election. --Ron Newman, MIT Project Athena "Why be normal?"