Jeff Hughes’ Election Broke New Ground

Supreme Court Decision Opened Door for Judges To Speak Freely In Campaigns

by Woody Jenkins, editor

CENTRAL — Judge Jeff Hughes’ candidacy for the Louisiana Supreme Court broke new ground — in terms of both our political system and our legal system.  Even though Louisiana has elected its judges throughout its history, candidates for judgeships have been ordered by the state supreme court not to discuss controversial issues during their campaigns.  The theory was that this might cause a judge to be biased on his future rulings and might even disqualify him from sitting on a case.

But these kinds of prohibitions on freedom of speech were struck down in a 2003 case that made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The court ruled that state supreme courts could not adopt rules to limit or restrict the right of candidates for judges to speak freely on important issues.  The problem is that, until Jeff Hughes ran for the Supreme Court, candidates for judge in Louisiana and other states have still been reluctant to speak out on controversial issues.  But Jeff Hughes just ran a tough, in-your-face campaign based on real issues — and won!

He staked out a strong conservative message — pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-traditional marriage.  As a result, he has become the first Republican ever elected from the Baton Rouge area to the state Supreme Court and has given Republicans a 4-3 majority on the court.

Hughes’ victory ought to send a message to every candidate for judge — don’t be afraid of saying what you believe and running a campaign based on real issues!