IBA also not happy with Gov

First the Indiana State Bar Association issued a statement saying Gov. Mitch Daniels’ comments in the press regarding the “voter ID” decision last week weren’t “helpful in advancing the appropriate respect for the courts and the judicial process.”

Now, the Indianapolis Bar Association has released a statement from its president chastising the public criticism of the court. Its basic message: public criticism of judges has no place in the judicial process.

In the statement, IBA president James Voyles says, “As citizens, we have the right to be heard and to challenge rulings by judicial process. Indeed, our legal system is structured to permit judicial review to higher courts to afford litigants the ability to seek redress for unfavorable rulings. The court of judicial process is the appropriate forum for such relief; the court of public opinion is not.”

The statement goes on to say that those unhappy with the ruling should take up the appropriate legal process for relief instead of going to the media “to lodge personal attacks on the judges who are charged with the difficult task of preserving our constitutional rights.”

Finally, Voyles says “Regardless of personal opinion as to the ruling, that our judicial officers and our judicial process should command a greater respect goes unsaid. We enjoy freedoms and rights that many do not, and with that comes responsibility to respect the courts and those that take the oath to protect the integrity of the office of the judiciary.”

I can’t recall in the few years I’ve been working for the Indiana Lawyer seeing any bar association commenting publicly like this on reaction to a ruling. They’re obviously coming to the defense of the judges and trying to give another point of view on this topic. It’s too bad the judges who made the ruling can’t speak; I’m dying to know what they have to say about this controversy.