Lawmakers Attempt to Change Judicial Nominating Method

Tuesday, February 14, 2017 | 0

Republican lawmakers are attempting to change the way judges are selected in Oklahoma in the wake of several court decisions that declared GOP-sponsored laws unconstitutional.

Gov. Mary Fallin

In recent years, courts have overturned changes to laws on abortion, the civil justice code and workers' compensation made by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, the Associated Press reports.

Frustration with those decisions lingers among certain lawmakers, the news source reports. Several Republican senators have introduced measures that would subject judicial appointees to partisan elections, change the boundaries of districts from which candidates are selected and change the state's Constitution to alter the way appellate courts are selected. 

The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the Oklahoma Employee Injury Benefit Act in its entirety in September. The so-called "opt-out act," or Oklahoma Option, allowed employers to leave the state's workers' compensation system and create their own plans to cover injured workers.

Trial court judges have struck down 38 provisions of a workers' compensation law passed in 2013 that overhauled the comp system, said Oklahoma City attorney Bob Burke, who has been keeping track.