Last week, Judge James C. Ho of the Fifth Circuit delivered a stirring address at a First Liberty Institute gathering. I was very impressed by the speech, and asked Judge Ho for permission to publish his remarks. He kindly agreed. The theme of the event was "Judicial Courage," and Judge Ho discusses how courage should impact judicial selection. I will include the full post below the jump, but here is an important excerpt:
Second, consider the advice that Paul gave in his first epistle to Timothy about choosing a good leader. Don't pick "a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil."
Instead, recall what was done when it was time to replace Judas among the 12 disciples. As the Book of Acts explains, "choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time."
In other words, don't pick the Johnny-come-latelies—the ones who only showed up after it became socially acceptable and career enhancing to do so. Choose only from those who have been here from the beginning, even when it was hard—those who were with us, not out of convenience, but out of conviction.
So long as you've narrowed the pool that way, then it really doesn't matter who gets it—as long as they get it.
That's a far cry from how the process often plays out. There's a saying in my chambers: Nobody reads. It's true in litigation. And it's true in judicial selection, too.
Nobody actually reads what people have said and written. And that's why mistakes are made. Because if nobody reads, then it's not about who would do the job best. It's about who wants the job most.
And that's exactly wrong. It's exactly backwards. Because I want the people who are too busy to campaign—who just want to get the work done and then go home to their families.
Here is the full speech:
