Bradbury aims for Idaho high court
Second District judge wants to make judiciary accountable
By Kathy Hedberg Tuesday, March 11, 2008
GRANGEVILLE - Second District Judge John Bradbury announced his candidacy Monday for the Idaho Supreme Court to shine a light on judicial practices he says are "a disgrace."
Bradbury, 71, will challenge Justice Joel D. Horton, who was appointed to the high court last summer following the resignation of former Chief Justice Linda Trout. Bradbury said during a telephone interview Monday he does not know Horton and has no personal beef with him.
But Bradbury has been a persistent critic of the way judges are selected by partisan governors to fill vacancies and believes contested races are the only way to make the judiciary accountable to the people.
Former supreme court justices Gerald Schroeder and Trout "both retired early and specifically stated (it was) so their successor could be named without an election," Bradbury said, referring to the two retirements last year.
"These are the same justices that swear to uphold the constitution that requires no partisan elections (in judges' races). It's a disgrace."
Bradbury was elected to the bench in 2002 in a contested race, but was re-elected two years ago without opposition.
The lack of competition in judges' races, he said, denies the public a chance to hear the issues regarding the judicial system. Bradbury paid for an advertisement in the Lewiston Tribune in 2002 to vent his frustration with the system.
"There's no way to discuss issues if you don't have an opponent," he said. "And there are lots of issues - the cost of going to court, the efficiency of the court system, the appointment of judges by partisan governors, (and) all judicial disciplinary proceedings are all secret, even though they involve judges who happen to be public servants.
"The court system will become independent of the executive and legislative branches and accountable to the public only when it has to answer in this way to the people it was created to serve."
In his five years as a judge for Idaho, Lewis and Clearwater counties, Bradbury has worked to streamline the judicial process by scheduling hearings at particular times, rather than all at the same time, as they were done by his predecessor, George R. Reinhardt.
In the past, Bradbury said, lawyers and their clients would show up for court in the morning and sometimes have to wait for hours before their turn to be heard.
At $100 an hour (average attorney fee) that made a single motion an expensive proposition, he said. By scheduling hearings at specific times the expenses are a fraction of that.
He spends two days a week in Clearwater County, one day in Lewis County and two days in Idaho County, which also is an increase over Reinhardt's schedule. Bradbury said in the five years before he became a judge 15 cases had gone to trial. Since he took over there have been 52 trials.
Bradbury is proud of instituting Idaho's first rural mental health court. He said it took him nearly four years to accomplish that goal, but he pledged to use whatever political capital he possessed to make it happen.
Things haven't all gone smoothly, though. Bradbury said he has felt the blunt of the supreme court's rule that allows attorneys, on behalf of their clients, to remove a judge from a case without stating a reason.
"I'm viewed by lawyers and defendants in child sex abuse cases as being too tough, so I am automatically removed from all those cases," he said. "I don't know where the supreme court has the authority to undo an election. I got 15,000 votes when I was elected and one unelected party can remove me, even though I was elected by the people."
Bradbury, who is unmarried, was born in Orofino and grew up in Headquarters. He graduated from the University of Idaho and the University of Michigan law school.
After college he joined the U.S. Army and served in the Eighth Army 502 Intelligence Battalion for three years in Korea.
He practiced law in Alaska and Seattle before returning to Idaho in 1989 to run a cattle ranch at Woodland for five years. He later moved to Lewiston and taught, and continues to teach as an adjunct instructor, international business at Lewis-Clark State College.
Originally published by the Lewiston Tribune
