How to Run for Judge

Opening doors to Democracy, that’s the way Philadelphia City Commissioner Omar Sabir described what he was doing when he recently hosted a zoom meeting that was presented live on Facebook, educating the general public about how to run for political office.
The Honorable Judge Frederica Messiah Jackson was one of the panelists who participated on the panel assembled by Commissioner Sabir to help explain what it takes to run. She talked about how to run for Judge. “We need lawyers to run for Judge,” Messiah Jackson commented. “Our demographics currently in Philadelphia roughly, we have 92 Common Pleas Judges. There are eight vacancies for this Spring’s primary on Common Pleas Court. We have 29 Municipal Court Judges. That might include one or two senior judges. There are three vacancies on Municipal Court for the upcoming May primary. There will be eleven judicial vacancies on the ballot. Of the 92 Common Pleas Judges, thirty-six are judges of color. That’s about one-third of our judges in Philadelphia being judges of color and that includes Asians as well as Latino, not only African American judges. Forty-eight of the Common Pleas judges are women, which is almost one-half. Of the 29 Municipal Court Judges, eleven are people of color, and nine, which is one-third, are women. We do have judges who identify as gay or lesbian on both courts and there are judges who are not “out,” so-to-speak, but who are gay or lesbian. We have a good mix of judges as far as diversity.”
Judge Messiah Jackson continued, “With eleven judicial vacancies, there will probably be about thirty lawyers running for those vacancies. That’s a lot of candidates. At the state court level, there’s some judicial seats open as well. On Superior Court, there are fifteen judges. Ten of them are women. There’s one Black female. On Commonwealth Court, there’s six female judges and on PA Supreme Court, there’s seven justices, three are women, none are African American.
If a judicial candidate wants to be rated by the Philadelphia Bar Association, and if they want to be endorsed by one of the parties, they must go through the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Judicial Selection Committee. Twenty-nine individuals have submitted their applications for evaluation and review, for these eleven judicial seats in Philadelphia. There may be additional people running for judicial seats in Philadelphia, but twenty-nine have submitted applications to the Bar Association.
If someone decides to run for judge and does not go through the Philadelphia Bar Association, you will be found unqualified, even if you have the best qualifications in the world. You have to go through the Philadelphia Bar Association.”
Then Judge Messiah Jackson gave a rundown on what the Philadelphia Bar Association looks for in candidates they endorse. There’s a written form you have to fill out. You have to include information about cases that you’ve tried. You have to submit letters of recommendation or at least offer names of people who can give you recommendations. The candidates are interviewed by a team of two or three people who come to your office, or these days over zoom, to get deeper into the responses you gave on the application. Then the candidates are asked to make a presentation in front of the full committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association. They want to evaluate your legal ability. They want to know your knowledge of legal principles and procedures and if you understand the rules of procedure.
They look at your professional record, you may have to submit two or three samples of your written briefs. They also want you to submit recommendations from lawyers and judges that you know. They look for your trial experience and they hope you’ve been out of law school for at least 10 years. Were you a law professor or a negotiations or public interest lawyer? Did you work in court or did you work in the office doing what we call transactional work? The Philadelphia Bar Association will look at your overall experience. What are your ethical standards?
Judge Messiah Jackson shared, “Here’s one that trips up a lot of candidates: Financial responsibility. Are you up to date on your taxes? Have you ever filed for bankruptcy? If someone looked at your credit report, do you have overdue bills, either for your home or for your office? Financial responsibility is a very big deal.
Bar Association representatives will go and interview the people you listed who will give you recommendations and they will ask them, what’s the temperament of this person/candidate? Is he or she calm? Can they handle stress? Being a judge can put you in stressful situations. Do you have good mental and physical health? Have you been involved with your community? That is, do you work at a community center? Do you do pro bono work? Do you do work at your church? Do you have administrative skills? Bottom line, what have you done to show that you want to improve the quality of justice in your city?”
Finally, Judge Messiah Jackson said, “Candidates must file campaign petitions and financial reports on time. Your campaign records of income and expenses, those little details can trip somebody up. I suggest to anyone who is running for judge to attend community meetings, go of course to Ward meetings, and go to every event or activity you can get to. If at first you don’t succeed, try again.”
It should be noted that for the last 12 months and into the near future, political campaigning is not quite like it used to be. A lot of public meetings and community meetings are being held via zoom and on other social media platforms. Nonetheless, whatever ways there are to get your message out to the general public and more specifically to voters, use those vehicles.
Next week in our Civics 101 column, we’ll have more information from recent public meetings held by Philadelphia Commissioner’s office about how to run for political office. Stay tuned.