Letters to the Editor: Are appointed judges more ethical than elected judges?

To the editor: As a retired judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, I was interested in your article regarding the discipline of Judge Emily Cole, whom I do not know.

What caught my attention was the notation that she was elected to the bench in 2020 after serving as a deputy district attorney, indicating she was not a judge appointed by the governor.

As your readers may not know, judicial applicants undergo a rigorous evaluation by both their county bar, and the state Commission on Judicial Nominee Evaluations, which makes recommendations to the governor regarding appointments to the bench. Elected judges undergo no similar evaluation before being placed on the ballot.

A study by Stanford University and the state Commission on Judicial Performance found that judges who were initially appointed were less likely to be disciplined than those who were initially elected. There is much to commend in the vetting process of judges in California, little understood or known by our electorate.

Joe Hilberman, Los Angeles