According to this vacancy announcement posted on the Idaho Judicial Council website, First District Court Judge Benjamin Simpson will retire on April 30, 2015. A replacement will be appointed to fill out his unexpired term of office.
The deadline for receiving applications was January 5, 2015. Here is a list of the applicants.
Members of the Idaho Judicial Council will meet in Coeur d’Alene in March 2015 to interview candidates and select nominees. We don’t know if the interviews will be public.
The public may provide input to the Idaho Judicial Council about who from the list of applicants should be the next First District Court Judge. Here is the public questionnaire which the public must use to submit comments (positive or negative) about applicants.
‘Witch Hunt’ is in the running?
Comment by up river — January 14, 2015 @ 8:35 am
Up River is referring to John “Witch Hunt” Cafferty, so nicknamed because of his utterances to the Court in the 2010 election contest lawsuit. He referred to those honest citizens of Coeur d’Alene who supported the remedial lawsuit as being on a witch hunt. Cafferty was a deputy prosecuting attorney in Barry McHugh’s office at the time, and had Cafferty not apologized in open court, it is likely one or more of us who heard his intemperate comment would have become pen-pals with the Idaho State Bar Association.
It is hard to believe that “Witch Hunt” is in the running, however as we have seen in the most recent magistrate selections by the Magistrate’s Commission (not the same as the Idaho Judicial Council), in the First Judicial District professional qualifications seem less important than being from this area.
Comment by Bill — January 14, 2015 @ 9:08 am