Forget all the rhetoric about the Jacksonian premise of a popularly elected judiciary. The public wants cash out of the courtroom — and that could mean pushing elections out, too.

Megabuck contributions from courtroom players, however innocently invested, lead to serious mistrust of the courts: 84 percent of Americans believe judges should not hear cases from major campaign contributors, and 74 percent believe campaign contributions have some influence on a judge’s courtroom decisions, according to surveys conducted by Justice At Stake, a national nonpartisan group that monitors money in judicial elections.

Wallace Jefferson, the chief justice of the Texas Supreme ...

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