Cyrus Dugger

UPDATED - CJ&D: Facts About ATRA’s So-Called “Judicial Hellholes”

From the Center for Justice and Democracy

The release…

Consumer Group Condemns Vicious Report Attacking Judges Across America For Immediate Release: Contact: Joanne Doroshow, December 13, 2006 Laurie Beacham 212/267-2801 New York – The Center for Justice & Democracy (CJ&D) today called the American Tort Reform Association’s “Judicial Hellholes 2006” report attacking judges in several regions around the country, “vicious and undemocratic, not to mention dishonest and ungrounded.” In its report released today, ATRA launches a ferocious attack on fair and independent judges based on the apparent views of its members that include polluters, tobacco companies, and the insurance industry, among other industries.

“Coming just weeks after elections in which voters soundly rejected judicial candidates backed
by ATRA and other corporate-backed groups, this report is sheer nonsense, and certainly out of
touch with the American public,” said Joanne Doroshow, Executive Director for CJ&D.
“What’s more, it is a shameful violation of the very foundations of our democracy. The
American public does not want judges to have to look over their shoulder to calculate how their
decisions might play with corporate-backed special interest groups like this.” (keep reading)

The Report…..

FACTS ABOUT ATRA’S SO-CALLED “JUDICIAL HELLHOLES”

Each year, a Washington D.C. corporate-backed group, the American Tort Reform Association, releases an annual report in which it designates certain areas of the country as “judicial hellholes” because, essentially, ATRA does not like court decisions in these areas. While the methodology of this report is unclear, it appears to be based mostly on a survey of ATRA members. ATRA’s members are primarily corporations or corporate trade associations representing industries that have been sued and found liable, often repeatedly, for wrongdoing – polluters, tobacco companies and the insurance industry, to name a few.1 As a guise for its attacks on the court system, ATRA claims the litigation climate in its targeted areas harms the local economies. ATRA produces nothing to back this up and, time and time again, it is proven false.

JUDGES VS. JURIES: CALLOUS ASSAULTS AND RACIAL OVERTONES
ATRA’s “Judicial Hellholes 2005” report designated the Rio Grande Valley and hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast of Texas, as the worst so-called “Hellhole,” apparently deciding this was a good time to trash this area as it struggled to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. ATRA’s earlier “Hellhole” reports attacked juries and judges from primarily minority communities.2 Apparently stung by criticism of its disparaging remarks about jurors in these areas, later “Hellhole” reports changed focus to more specifically attack judges in these communities.3 Yet even later Hellhole reports have included critical remarks about juries.4 Now that ATRA has decided that judges create “Hellholes” and not juries, new questions arise. When groups like ATRA orchestrate national campaigns against local judges, the independence of our judiciary, and very foundations of our democracy, are threatened. A number of U.S. Supreme Court Justices have spoken about this recently.

For example, in 2004, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist said that “judges must be protected from political threats, including from conservative Republicans.… The Constitution protects judicial independence not to benefit judges, but to promote the rule of law.”5 Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy have made similar remarks.6 (keep reading report)

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