The Oklahoma Bar Journal May 2023

Every Patriot in Oklahoma should be championing this judicial process that has been our heritage from our founding and has been preserved with bloodshed on the battlefield countless times in our history. 32 An independent judiciary is vital to Oklahoma. Attempts to get rid of the Judicial Nominating Commission could arguably be viewed as a power grab to allow political leaders to appoint judges without any formal vetting of applicants. That is a sure way to return to the sordid history of the first half of our state history when politics determined what judges were appointed or elected. Merit had little to do with it. All citizens involved in a dis pute deserve an unbiased judge to hear the facts and apply the law without showing favoritism to any party. We all want a level playing field when involved in a lawsuit. We should learn from the mistakes of the past and allow the court reform of the 1960s to continue to guarantee judicial independence.

Affairs alleged that the JNC was a secret process in which politics reigned, Judge Bland said: We don’t discuss the vote after the interviews. It’s in the rules that one commissioner does not lobby another commis sioner on how to vote. It’s just about everybody reviewing the information, studying the background checks, doing their research, listening to the inter views, and then voting. A common criticism of the JNC process is that “lawyers control the JNC and therefore choose the judges.” That is a myth. Lawyers are in a minority on the JNC. Nine of the 15 members of the JNC are nonlawyers. The governor appoints six members, and none can have a lawyer in their immediate family. Of the three remaining nonlawyer members, one is appointed by the House speaker, one is elected by the Senate president pro tempore, and one is selected by members of the JNC. Only six members are lawyers – one selected by other lawyers from each of the old six congressional districts. 31 Retired Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Steven Taylor is a champion of judicial indepen dence, free from politics. He wrote: Political winds from both the left and the right continue to attempt to weaken judi cial independence. Political winds should never blow in a Courtroom. The Judge should never hold up a finger to test political winds. It is absolutely essential that every judge have the courage to follow the law even when it is unpopular to do so. ...

ENDNOTES 1. Interview with G.T. Blankenship, Feb. 20, 2002, Heritage Archives, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, hereafter referred to as the G.T. Blankenship interview. The only known copy of the sworn statement was delivered to me in 1996 by OBA Executive Director Marvin Emerson. He told me, “You will need this someday to show future generations how bad the scandal was.” Marvin died two years later. The sworn statement is hereafter referred to as Corn Statement. 2. 1957 OK 53, 309 P.2d 267. 3. Corn Statement; In 2015, James Harrod, the county attorney of Oklahoma County who took the sworn statement in a Missouri prison where former Justice Corn was serving his sentence for income tax evasion, saw the sworn statement for the first time. He left office a few weeks after taking the sworn statement and never saw the transcript until I presented him a copy. He read the sworn statement and confirmed its authenticity. 4. William A. Berry and James Edwin Alexander, Justice for Sale: The Shocking Scandal of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, (Oklahoma City: Macedon Production Company, 1996), hereafter referred to as Justice for Sale . 5. Bob Burke, An Independent Judiciary is Good for Oklahoma Business, (Oklahoma City: Commonwealth Press, 2022), hereafter referred to as An Independent Judiciary , p. 17. 6. Justice for Sale , p. 113. 7. An Independent Judiciary , p. 43. 8. Id. 9. Id. , p. 38. 10. Id. p. 48-49; Time magazine, April 16, 1965. 11. The Oklahoman, June 17, 1965; Cargill v. United States, 381 F.2d 849 (10th Cir. 1967). 12. An Independent Judiciary , p. 43. 13. Id. 14. Id. , p. 45. 15. Id. , p. 51. 16. Oklahoma City Times, May 7, 1965. 17. Justice for Sale , p. 106. 18. An Independent Judiciary , p. 52. 19. Id. , p. 56-57. 20. Justice for Sale , 179-183. 21. An Independent Judiciary , p. 57. 22. Bob Burke and Eric Dabney, Gentleman Jurist: The Life of Ralph G. Thompson, (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2011); Recollections of Ralph Gordon Thompson recorded during the winter and spring of 2010, Archives, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, formerly the Oklahoma Heritage Association, hereafter referred to as Ralph Thompson interview. 23. The Daily Oklahoman, May 4, 1966; An Independent Judiciary , p. 60-61. 24. State Questions 447 and 448 were approved by state voters. Court reform passed handily in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, but voters in rural areas generally voted against reform; Ralph Thompson interview. 25. An Independent Judiciary , p. 66-67. 26. Id. , p. 67. 27. Id. , p. 68. 28. Id. , p. 89. 29. Id. 30. Senate Joint Resolution 43, Oklahoma Legislature, 2022. 31. An Independent Judiciary , p. 71. 32. Id. , p. 99.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bob Burke has been a workers’ compensation and constitutional lawyer for 42 years. He is vice chair of the Oklahoma

Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Elections and a Trustee of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation. Mr. Burke is a member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and has written more historical nonfiction books (154) than anyone in history.

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

MAY 2023 | 31

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL