Nevada voters have a judicial selection question on the ballot this November.  Retired Supreme Court Justice O'Connor is out campaigning for it, Doug McMurdo reports in the Review-Journal.

The proposal would replace direct elections for Supreme Court and District Court with gubernatorial appointment followed by retention elections. To that extent, it would be an improvement, in my opinion.

But there is a fly in the ointment.  The governor can't choose anyone he wants.  He must choose from a list of three submitted by a commission, and the State Bar appoints almost half the members of the commission.

I hope the voters reject this proposal and send the anti-election crowd back to the drawing board.  The lawyers of the state should not have any more say in the selection of judges than the other citizens.  The notion that the lawyers will select the best people for judges, and therefore that selection by the Bar constitutes "merit selection," is ludicrous.  Substituting bar politics for general politics is a step down, not a step up.

Go back and do it over, folks, and abolish that commission.

Question 2 on the ballot asks the voters if they want to create an intermediate appellate court. Nevada presently does not have one.  Felony cases and major civil cases are tried in the District Court and appealed directly to the Supreme Court.