Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Lora Hubbel made a statement on her facebook page on Tuesday on what her policy would be towards members of the Judicial Branch of South Dakota’s Government if she was successful in her bid to be the State’s next Governor.
Hubbel notes that “As Governor I plan on weeding out the bad ones” in reference to an inquiry on seeking a judge who would be fair in a child custody battle:
While the Governor has the ability to appoint judges (working with the judicial qualifications commission), in the instance of vacancies it is unclear by what mechanism Hubbel believes a standing Governor could remove a judge.
According to state law and the South Dakota State Constitution, South Dakota judges may be removed in one of two ways: On the recommendation of the judicial qualifications commission, the State Supreme Court, after a hearing, may censure, remove, or retire a judge. Or in the case of a Supreme Court Justice, a Justice may be impeached by a majority vote of the House of Representatives and convicted by a two-thirds vote of the State Senate.
Conceivably, to “weed out” what she perceives as the bad ones, Hubbel could send an endless flurry of sternly worded letters to the Judicial Qualifications Commission. Or she could try to leverage her “Two citizens who are not of the same political party, appointed by the Governor” appointments to the Judicial Qualifications Commission to do her bidding. But nowhere in the Constitution or State Law can I find that the Chief Executive of the State of South Dakota has the ability to unilaterally “weed out the bad judges.”
As Governor, she could conceivably endorse or oppose circuit court judicial candidates when they’re up for election. However, if her intent as Governor would be to endorse judicial candidates, this would be somewhat hypocritical, considering her past statements.
Any thoughts? Or is this just another reminder of why Lora Hubbel is utterly unfit in any capacity to be considered as a candidate for Governor.
Update….
“It’s like deja-vu, all over again.”
– Yogi Berra
Totally unelectable!
That’s what they said about Trump.
But Trump is intelligent, personable, wealthy, articulate …Lora is none of the above
It doesn’t matter. they are both anti-establishment and want to drain the swamp
As a leading legislator pushing the child custody reform, I feel compelled to respond to this post. While I will agree that there are some judges in the state who are more likely to give a bias judgment with their unilateral power in child custody cases, that does not mean that the Governor has the power to “weed out” these judges. Regardless of what Lora thinks, we still live in a Democracy and we still have to follow the Constitution. If Lora would like to change this process, she could certainly circulation a petition for a Constitutional Amendment or she could ask a currently serving legislator to bring Bill before the Legislature.
Furthermore, if we really want to fix this issue, we (our Legislature) should reform some statutes in SDCL 25-4A and provide language that takes away this possible bias from some of our judges.
There is no such thing as a fair decision in child custody cases. Everybody loses, especially the children. There is no legislative fix for this, nor is there a judicial one. Even if a governor could weed out the “unfair” judges, it wouldn’t change the fact that the decisions are inherently unfair. Even when joint/shared custody is awarded, the children end up spending most of their time living with one parent and not the other.
So wanting to change the laws is no more rational than wanting to weed out judges. Both of you are smokin’ a pipe dream.
Anne Beal,
If you were blindfolded and I gave you an orange, and let you touch it, smell it, peel it and eat it….you would still think it’s a banana. There have been numerous studies done by people much smarter than you or I that say your wrong and plus there have been numerous examples of people who have or current do execute Shared Parenting with great success which proves your wrong.
As for joint custody I have been there done that. Seen it lots of times. The kids suffer no matter what. Any parent who thinks everything is fine is delusional.
My ex and I were more successful at maintaining a good relationship than anybody we know, and yet the kids still suffered. We still get together for holidays even when the boys are elsewhere, danced together at their weddings, attended each other’s daughters’ weddings, but if you were to ask them what it was like growing up with divorced parents, they would tell you it sucked. Anybody who thinks it “works” is imagining things.
Your misinformed and come from a position lacking current studies and facts. I’d be happy to have this conversation with you over coffee.
Best Regards
They should be 100% elected instead of appointed.
Do you just not have a clue how judges are selected in the State, Tara?
Many retire a few months before election. Then the Governor appoints one instead of waiting.
And how is the Legislature working for you Tom?
You hit the nail on the head. She’s literally unfit.
Can you give me some good reasons Jon?
Jon won’t.
Tara, I’ll give you as many reasons as you’d like. Head over to her FB page, pick a random post and read it. Repeat until you’ve have enough reasons. Shouldn’t take long.
She has a great fb page. Can’t find anything that makes her unfit. So Jon you still haven’t answered my question. Quit playing dodge ball.
If you looked at her page can’t readily see how unfit she is, then it’s not worth the time explaining.
Maybe it’s not worth you time bitching if you can’t back it up.
Chemtrails. Nanobots. Back to Sleep. That should be plenty. And I’m not bitching. She’s unfit and unelectable. Any chance she may have once had is gone. She’s said far too many things that any opponent could use to defeat her, even if she did make it through a primary, which she has no chance at anyway.
You probably haven’t even met her. Pat’s very good at taking things out of context. Research her on her political platform. You don’t agree where she stands on the issues, then don’t vote for the only true conservative in the race.
What does her nonsensical gibberish on Facebook have to do with Pat? She may be a true conservative, but she’s also so far off her rocker she’s on the floor. No chance. Zero.
Zero facts so you resort to smear tactics. Cheap shots are not relevent.
There’s a pretty recent precedent for electing unfit people to important executive positions…
Unfortunately unfitness for office is a trait popular with Republican voters right now as evidenced by Roy Moore and the President whose name is never mentioned on this site. Hopefully that is an anomaly and not a trend.
Ha ha, you socialists are so funny! What about Obama? He was as corrupt as they come, and he had no experience other than a few months as an ineffective senator. Did you think Hillary’s hubby, Slick Willy was fit for office? He was shown to be a lecher and could not be trusted with young interns, and in trying to defend his immoral behavior he was also shown to be a liar? How about the former senate majority leader, Harry Reid? He made up lies about Romney’s taxes and then justified it in his so-called mind.
Liberals like yourselves have no morals, so don’t pretend you have ANY high ground. Have you knuckleheads heard that it was the Demos who financed the false “dossier” to try to take down OUR president, Donald J. Trump? Perhaps you only get your “news” from MSLSD and the New York Slimes. Typical lefties, not interested in facts if it is counter to your anti-American goals.
“The Sage” you are not.
Some of us are not obsessed.
I’m trying to keep MY Republican Party from going off a cliff. Lora Hubbel, Roy Moore and yes, Donald J. Trump that juvenile, indecisive, lying, narcissistic, flip-flopper all seem intent on taking the party off a cliff. People like that might provide a short-term sugar high, but long term there’s no nutritional value for the party there. Maybe I’m wasting my time trying to speak truth, when even people I respect like Troy call me names for offering candid observations.
Lora Hubbel didn’t take the Republican Party to new lows, they did it to themselves, with a little help from a few Democrats. She is just trying to fix corruption in SD, through transparency and accountability. If that doesn’t make her qualified, well than don’t vote for her.
Sage Weed,
Kinda wondering how the Russian collusion, criminal conduct, and potential treason investigation is going?
Weed. Noxious, ugly, unproductive, persistent, unwanted.
Pretty good metaphor for someone who is a sore loser, runs against the party candidate, gets kicked out of the party, joins another party, is supported by crackpots and democratic party operatives, and baselessly attacks the party she wants to represent.
Weed.
Cue Tara
Sorry, been away from my computer all day. I think many judges are appointed for political reasons. I would like to see elections instead of appointments by the Governor. Run on your merits instead of being appointed by your political and financial contributions.
Lora says she’s going to put Rounds and Daugaard in prison, too
She needs to move to Illinois for that to happen.
I can’t wait to see how Tara is going to try to defend this one. Another blatant example of Lora not having any clue about the issue she’s trying to “fix”. You would think a candidate for Governor would at least research a topic for 5 minutes before she started spouting.
Jon, to easy. I can defend her, but I am not going to personally attack some of these Judges that are struggling. We are all flawed, but there are some that might be better suited in another vocation.
She spent the whole day at Vermillion listening to Marshal Damgaard and some of his students explaining the $62 million dollars that have been stolen from Indian students. She attended the Tribal un-relations committee hearing. Did anybody listen to the podcast?
I can appreciate the sentiment, Recently we have seen judges legislate from the bench.
My concern is how to tell a bad judge from a good judge? As Governor, what can be done to remove a ‘bad’ judge from the bench.
It’s kind of like teachers. The good teachers know who the bad teachers are.
Mrs. Volesky, you are absolutely righter than right on that comment.
Well, thanky thank you Grudz.
Get elected by the people instead of appointed by the Governor, then you should have a good Judge.
There have been Judges removed MC.
THAT woman asks a question on FB and then blocks anybody that disagrees with her…. Maybe chem trails cause stupidity among conservaties?
If you get nasty and destructive.
Did she block you Jaa Dee?
She burns bridges with Daugaard and the establishment elite which makes her a good candidate for Governor. She is one tough Broad.
Tara, she burns bridges with everybody. Even if she were a serious candidate for the position, she has marginalized herself to the point where nobody wants to work with her.
For some reason you are a fan of the Hubbel-Nelson-Russell-Insane Clown Posse Traveling Salvation and Medicine Show. Other than their entertainment value, they aren’t worth much. They contribute nothing but hot air and hilarity.
Angela Kennecke managed to do a whole story tonight on the Gear Up case without mentioning a single one of them. I am sure this will fuel your conspiracy theories and you will now have to accuse Kennecke of being involved in a cover-up.
SMH
Anne, be careful when you near bridges. You are putting out a lot of fire. Or do you feel safe because you are sucking up to Establishment liberals?
Steve, Lora has lost her mind. Even when she’s right about something she has no credibility. She can be spot-on about an issue but because she has embraced crazy ideas about nanobots, chemtrails, vaccines, dog microchips, and government mind control thorough the SIDS-prevention “Back to Sleep” campaign, nothing she says is taken seriously.
So this week she plans to weed out “unfair” family court judges (can she name one?) and put Rounds and Daugaard in prison. Because any outcome she doesn’t like, any opinion she disagrees with, is evidence of criminal activity. In other words, her main campaign promise is to establish herself at the head of a dictatorship. That’s what she wants: a dictatorship. She’ll put all her political opponents in prison, on bogus charges, tried in courts presided over by her hand-picked judges.
If there were any chance of her being elected it would actually be frightening.
Anne, my comment was in regard to your outlandish statement:
“Hubbel-Nelson-Russell-Insane Clown Posse Traveling Salvation and Medicine Show”
I guess few can be as perfect as you. Keep up your work on kissing the rear ends of Establishment liberals.
Second, I find it interesting that these so-called insane clowns can get so much attention. Is it because attacking them makes everyone feel good about themselves? Or is it a ploy to ignore the wrongdoings of Establishment liberals?
I really like those 3. Livermont, May, and Jensen are 3 other ones I like.
I bet there is room to make this an even insaner clown posse to put those 3, and Mrs. Frye-Mueller in it too. 7 is a good number for an insaner clown posse.
MC,
Name a single instance where a judge has legislated from the Bench? What makes you think this event wasn’t just human error but an intent to make law?
If you can name one, was the situation corrected by the Supreme Court?
Earl Warren and no the situation was not corrected and they made Abortion legal after making up a privacy right in Griswold.
Lora was talking about state judges and so am I. Sorry you got confused.
Elected judges accepting campaign money. What could go wrong there?