oberman.qxd
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The council bases its evaluation on established criteria, including legal ability, integrity, temperament, and independence. Candidates are not rewarded or punished for their political views.
We would like to clarify a couple of implications raised about the council’s evaluations. The council has been charged, over the years, with being racist, part of “the Harold Washington organization,” anti-Democratic, pro-Democratic, anti-Catholic, “liberal,” and a bunch of other things. In our view, these charges have been made by candidates who have been unsatisfied with our evaluations. Past studies have shown that our evaluations have been fair to various groups. The council has tried to be hard (but fair) on all candidates because we believe judges have so much power that voters are entitled to insist that judges truly be qualified.
Martin J. Oberman
