'Choosing our judges'--a presidential showcase: former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to headline Annual Convention seminar.

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"The crisis of confidence in the judiciary is real and growing. Left unaddressed, the perception that justice is for sale will undermine the rule of law that the courts are supposed to uphold," retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has warned.

In June, Justice O'Connor will travel to Orlando to speak at The Florida Bar Annual Convention.

Mark your calendars for Friday, June 22, from 2 to 4 p.m., and plan to attend a free seminar called "Choosing Our Judges," at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Conference Center in Orlando.

The symposium--providing 2 CLE credits toward ethics/2 hours certification for State, Federal Government and Administrative Practice--is Bar President Scott Hawkins' Presidential Showcase event and is presented by the Constitutional Judiciary Committee.

Other panelists include Chief Justice Carol Hunstein, elected to the Georgia Supreme Court; Major Harding, retired Florida Supreme Court justice who has experienced merit retention firsthand; Peter Webster, president of the American Judicature Society and a retired First District Court of Appeal judge; and Martin Dyckman, a retired associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times, and author of A Most Disorderly Court: Scandal and Reform in the Florida Judiciary, about the corruption and cronyism in the Florida Supreme Court in the early '70s that sparked the state's switch to a merit selection and retention system. In 1976, Floridians voted overwhelmingly to keep justices and appellate judges out of elective politics.

Bert Brandenburg, executive director of Justice at Stake, will moderate.

"One of the United States ' greatest accomplishments has been establishing and maintaining a judiciary that defends the core principles of U.S. constitutional democracy and is independent of the executive and legislative branches and political parties," Hawkins said.

"Fair and impartial courts work to check governmental abuses of power; promote equal justice and the rule of law; and protect individual rights. However, the increasing influence of money in judicial elections and attacks on judges and judicial authority challenge the courts in safeguarding basic U.S. democratic values."

Currently, Hawkins notes, Florida's merit selection and retention system for judges is at the center of political controversy. A group called Restore Justice, Inc., a nonprofit political organization, has set up a website to collect contributions to "highlight judicial...