Friday, May 26, 2006

Judicial Openness Task Force Gets Underway

Task Force Formed by Justice Borden in Response to Zarella/Sullivan Scandal

A task force of lawyers, judges and journalists formed by Acting Chief Justice David Borden is looking at ways to make Connecticut's judiciary more open.
Supreme Court Justice David Borden gave the 18 members of the Judicial Public Access Task Force less than five months to make “concrete recommendations” for public access to the courts.
...
The access issues that were listed on six tablets during the more than hour long brainstorming session included: What is a court record? What court proceedings should be open to the public? Should there be an appeals process for when access to records is denied? What are other states doing? What is available under the current laws? What judicial administrative records should be open and how? (Stuart)

This is an excellent step in the right direction, and I'm glad these questions are finally being studied. It sounds like Borden wants to take action on this before the next legislative session gets underway--which is when a permanent chief justice would likely be confirmed.

Frankly, I think the judicial branch already has a principled leader in Borden, whose revelation of Sullivan's wrongdoing derailed Zarella's nomination. If Rell were to nominate him for the post, it would go a long way towards repairing the damage done by Sullivan's actions.

Source

Stuart, Christine. "Gigantic Judicial Undertaking." CT News Junkie 25 May, 2006.

2 comments:

Gabe said...

Side Note - I have a class with Justice Borden in the fall - Statutory Interpretation. Can't wait - apparently the final paper is writing legislation - complete with mock floor debate and explanations...

Genghis Conn said...

Sounds very cool, Gabe!