The Justice for Washington Foundation:
We are a non-profit organization with leaders from both major political parties. The Foundation is committed to defending the Washington State Constitution, promoting a better understanding of the content and history of the state constitution, and providing objective information about appellate level judicial candidates.
Restoring the Cross-Partisan Commitment to Judicial Restraint
The Justice for Washington Foundation is committed to judicial restraint. We believe that relying on the courts to make public policy undermines our state and federal constitutions, puts civil liberties at risk, and harms the publicÕs confidence in the judiciary.
Defending Judicial Elections
The Washington State Constitution provides for the election of superior court and state Supreme Court judges, statute provides for the election of other judges including the Court of Appeals.
Today the right of the people to select our judges is under attack in Washington State.
Justice for Washington supports the election of judges and opposes the efforts of special interest groups to eliminate judicial elections or otherwise manipulate the election process in ways that reduce the meaningfulness of judicial elections.
Protecting Civil Liberties
The Washington State Constitution contains stronger protections for civil liberties than the federal constitution and any other state constitution. This is in part because of the moment in history when the state constitution was written but also because of the spirit of the pioneers who chose to cross the breadth of the United States and found a new state that they hoped would be freer and more prosperous than the ones they'd left behind.
As a result the Washington State Constitution is a document that stands outside of today's partisan and ideological battles. It includes forcefully worded protections for rights that today we could easily call "liberal" and others that are clearly "conservative".
Property rights, a high barrier between church and state, the right to privacy and even free speech all have their political opponents Ð and all are contained in the Washington State Constitution.
One of the chief dangers of judicial activism and the politicization of the courts is that this complex system of rights and protections cannot survive outcomes based judicial rulings. For this reason, the Justice for Washington Foundation believes that civil rights are best protected by judges who are committed to judicial restraint.