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Judges are appointed often through the political process.

You can have many different selection systems, but the bottom line has to be a system that, once the judge takes office that judge will feel that he or she is to decide the case without reference to the popular thing or the popular will of the moment.

I think we've been the selection just because I think I've earned it by doing a lot of things for the district.

When you nominate for a seat, the expectation is that you serve that district and serve that seat if you are elected.

For the last decade, I've worked as a federal judge in a court that spans six Western states, serving about 20 percent of the continental United States and about 18 million people. The men and women I've worked with at every level in our circuit are an inspiration to me.

What is it that makes us trust our judges? Their independence in office and manner of appointment.

You draw a district for that particular minority - African American, Asian, Hispanic - so those folks have the right to elect whoever they want. If they don't decide to elect someone who sounds like them or looks like them, they can pick anyone they want.

In Europe and the United States, you've got different systems to select candidates, and no system is perfect.

Bush wasn't elected, he was selected - selected by five judges up in Washington who voted along party lines.

I do not think that we should select judges based on a particular philosophy as opposed to temperament, commitment to judicial neutrality and commitment to other more constant values as to which there is general consensus.