Davidson County Judge Hamilton “Kip” Gayden ruled last week that the Tennessee Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, a panel set up to review the performance of Tennessee’s appellate judges, was unconstitutional because its members did not “approximate the population of the state with respect to race and gender,” as required by state law. However, Judge Gayden declined to issue an order to prevent the panel from meeting, which subsequently met on Friday and voted to give all appeals court judges and Tennessee Supreme Court justices a positive recommendation.
Currently, the nine-member panel is composed of seven white men, once white woman, and once black woman. Six of the members are lawyers, three of whom are also judges. Judge Robert Jones of Columbia, Tennessee chairs the panel and a man from Franklin, Tennessee sits as vice chair. The Speaker of the Tennessee House and the Speaker of the Tennessee Senate appoint four members each, with the final members appointed by both speakers. Since he has held office, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey has appointed only men to the panel. However, the Lt. Governor was disappointed with the panel’s most recent decisions and was quoted in article of the Knoxville News Sentinel as saying, “I had hoped the commissioners would have the political will to focus on facts, not personalities.”
The panel uses the evaluations on Tennessee’s appellate judges, which are based upon interviews, surveys, and other information, to draft reports in which each appellate judge is recommended for retention or replacement. Under the current appellate judge selection system in Tennessee, Tennessee voters ultimately decided whether to retain the judges in retention elections. However, judges that received positive recommendations stand for a yes-no retention vote, while judges that received negative recommendations may be challenged in a popular election.
The State of Tennessee announced through Attorney General Jim Cooper that it disagreed with Judge Gayden’s decision and would likely appeal.
