Why am I running for Superior Court Judge?

By Michael J. Kennedy

The judiciary seems to be devolving into another government bureaucracy, but with greater pretensions than other agencies.

There seems to be confusion in the minds of many who hold judgeships now about what their proper role in this Republic is. Judges are, in this Republic, first and foremost, public servants, not masters. The people coming before them in the courts are not their subjects, but instead are their sovereigns. Sovereignty resides in the people, not in the government or in its agents. . Although there often is much haughtiness and arrogance on the bench, there properly is no majesty in a judge. We evicted majesty from these shores in 1776.

To apply the law, one must understand the hierarchy of the law and then know both the substance and the essence of the law, the letter and the Spirit, and that is what is too sorely and glaringly lacking on the bench these days. I will apply the law not make law.

The judiciary seems to be devolving into another government bureaucracy, but with greater pretensions than other agencies. In the criminal law realm, the judiciary is serving more and more as a revenue agency, helping local and state government fill depleting coffers with extravagant fees, assessments and fines, the imposition of which sometimes seems to be the sole or primary incentive for what some of the judges do case-by-case.