Judicial Merit Selection

“In this book, Greg Goelzhauser​ offers a fascinating glimpse into the black box of judicial merit selection commissions, the workings of which were—until now—largely a matter of uninformed speculation. With Judicial Merit Selection , Goelzhauser establishes himself as a rising star in the field of judicial selection—a scholar’s scholar who follows his data, resists sweeping generalizations in favor of complexity and nuance, and in so doing illuminates new truths."
—Charles Gardner Geyh, John F. Kimberling Professor, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, and author of Who is to Judge? The Perennial Debate over Whether to Elect or Appoint America’s Judges

“Scholars and policymakers ferociously and continually debate the best way to select and retain judges. Greg Goelzhauser cuts through these heated disputes, relying on unique and hard-to-collect data to examine whether one of these selection systems—commission-based merit selection—works as its proponents hope. Presenting the most complete examination of the design and operation of these commissions to date, Goelzhauser’s analyses have important and practical policy implications that deserve serious scrutiny by scholars and in statehouses around the country."
— Michael J. Nelson, Associate Professor of Political Science and Social Data Analytics at The Pennsylvania State University and author of Black and Blue: How African Americans Judge the U.S. Legal System.

"(An) innovative and timely inquiry.... using multi-method research approaches involving meticulous case study analyses and impressive original datasets, Goelzhauser provides an insightful and thought-provoking exploration of the stages and implementation of judicial merit selection.... Goelzhauser's work sheds new light on judicial merit selection processes and raises important questions."
— Judicature

"Bottom line: this is an outstanding book that involved creative research design and painstaking data collection. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of judicial selection, and does an excellent job using the limited data available to evaluate the merit selection system on its own terms."
— Law and Politics Book Review

" This terrific new book does an excellent job of illuminating merit selection in ways heretofore unachieved, thereby interjecting balance and facts into a debate often characterized by speculation, hyperbole, and false claims. Goelzhauser also offers new theoretical insights into the scientific study of judicial politics. In these and many other ways, Judicial Merit Selection is an outstanding achievement and thus is highly recommended."
— American Review of Politics

"Judicial Merit Selection makes significant advances in our understanding of an important method of judicial selection—one that is used to staff courts in over half of the states. Goelzhauser collected extensive original data, which he leverages using appropriate methodologies.... Goelzhauser coded and analyzed various variables about all 447 state supreme court judges appointed under merit selection from 1942 through 2016—a testament to the thoroughness of the work."
— Political Science Quarterly