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In Maintaining Institutional Independence: Funding Sustainable State Courts During Economic Crisis, former Oregon Chief Justice Paul De Muniz discusses how sustainable funding levels are a prerequisite if state judiciaries are to dispense fair and timely justice and play their constitutionally mandated role in government. The paper argues that achieving such funding should be a priority for the legislative and executive branches, as well as the judiciary. De Muniz describes, among other things, the dramatic changes state courts have experienced since the mid-twentieth century, along with the associated new responsibilities, new forms of governance, and a new reliance on state-level funding. | |
The Executive Session develops and answers questions that U.S. state courts will face in the foreseeable future, attempting to clarify what leaders of state courts can and should do to distinguish their role in our system of democratic governance.