On August 7, Tennesseans will vote in statewide retention elections for appellate court judges. The Nashville League of Women Voters explains merit retention and why this election matters.

1. TENNESSEE
RETENTION
ELECTIONS
EXPLAINED
in under 7 minutes!
TENNESSEE
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2. First things first. You’re correct.
How we pick and keep
our judges in Tennessee
is
very
confusing!
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3. So relax. We’ll explain.
There are three levels of courts in Tennessee.
(Just like every other state in the country and the
federal system.)
SUPREME
COURT
APPEALS
COURT
TRIAL COURTS
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4. Each level of court does something
different.
First, let’s look at
Trial Courts
The judge (or jury) hears witnesses and other
evidence, figures out what the facts are, and then
applies the law to the facts to decide the case.
Trial courts are local and include county,
municipal, and specialty courts.
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5. But, wait, there’s more . . .
It is so important to make sure that our trial courts
decide cases correctly that we have a built-in
review process. (Good thing!)
But what is that review process (you might ask)?
Answer:
The statewide appeals court system.
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6. The appeals court system (this
is important!)
There are two levels of appeals in the system.
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SUPREME
COURT
(level two)
APPEALS COURT
(level one)
TRIAL COURTS

7. How does it work?
If a party thinks the trial court was wrong, the party
can take his or her case to the appeals court and
ask it to review what the trial court did. If the
trial court made a mistake, the appeals
court can correct it.
In fact, that is the special (and exclusive) role of
the appeals court. It does not hear witnesses or take
evidence; instead it reviews trial court cases to make
sure the trial court was correct in deciding the case.
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8. And then—the Supreme Court
Making sure that the law is applied fairly and
impartially is so important to our society that we
have yet another level of court—the Tennessee
Supreme Court—that may review what the
appeals court does to make sure the law was
applied correctly.
If a party thinks the appeals court was wrong, he
or she may ask the Supreme Court to review the
case. If the case raises an important question,
the Supreme Court may decide to review it.
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9. So now we know what the TN
court system includes
Lots of trial courts throughout the state
AND
A statewide appeals system made up of:
The Court of Appeals, including:
 The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals
 The Tennessee Court of Appeals (for civil
[non-criminal] cases)
The Tennessee Supreme Court
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10. And now back to retention
elections (this is the confusing
part)
We have different ways of picking and
keeping our judges depending on the court’s
level.
We pick and keep our trial judges one way
and we pick and keep our appellate judges
another way.
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11. But wait, who are appellate
judges?
The term “appellate judges” includes all the
judges of our two levels of appeals courts: the
first level of appeal (Court of Appeals) and the
second level of appeal (the Supreme Court).
Here are the numbers:
 The TN Supreme Court–total of 5 justices
 The TN Court of Appeals–total of 12 judges
 The TN Court of Criminal Appeals–total of
12 judges
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12. So how to pick and how to keep?
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Trial court judges are picked and kept by
direct, partisan contested elections. Trial
judges are nominated by their political parties to
run in general elections. Both sitting judges and
lawyers who want to be judges may run for office.
These direct elections are county or local so
voters are more likely to know the reputations of
the judges and lawyers running for office based on
the candidate’s legal work and civic activities in
their community.

13. But appellate judges are different
Appellate judges have very important
responsibilities to make sure Tennessee law is
applied correctly, fairly, and impartially. Also,
sometimes when a new question is presented, it is
the job of the appellate judge to interpret the law or
the state constitution.
Therefore, it is extra important to make sure that
appellate judges do their job with the proper
dedication to applying the law, and
without any political or outside influences
or pressure.
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14. Because appellate judges are
different, how we pick and
keep them is different too
Over 40 years ago, the Tennessee Plan was
adopted to have Court of Appeals judges elected
in retention elections. (There’s that word
again!) And about 20 years ago, the Plan added
the Supreme Court justices to retention elections.
Retention elections are designed to
reduce outside and political influences
on appellate judges.
So what are they, you ask?
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15. Retention Elections—Now
we’re getting somewhere!
A retention election is one in which the
name of an incumbent or “sitting” appellate
judge is on the ballot and the voter is asked to
vote either to retain (keep) or replace
(remove) the judge.
So the question is whether the appellate judge
seeking to be retained has been doing a good
job and meeting his or her responsibility
to uphold and apply the law fairly and
impartially.
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16. The question is NOT about
whether voters agree with every
judicial decision or opinion by
the judge
Why not, you ask?
Because, appellate judges are not hired to decide
cases based on politics, popular opinion, or
public sentiment. (They’re not like politicians in the
executive and legislative branches of government.)
Instead, appellate judges are governed by the law
and are required to decide cases based upon the law’s
fair and impartial application to the particular facts,
not on the popularity of his or her decisions.
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17. How do voters know if an
appellate judge has been
doing a good job?
An extensive and detailed job
performance evaluation of each judge is
conducted by a bipartisan commission
appointed by Tennessee’s Speakers of the House
and Senate. These citizens and lawyers examine
how the judge performed over the past term. The
bipartisan committee then recommends that
the judge be either retained or replaced.
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18. LWVTN 062014 18
 The job evaluations and recommendations
then are made available directly to
voters to inform them in casting their votes at
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/node/2458533.
 The 2014 bipartisan committee recommended
all appellate judges seeking retention be
retained.
 Find other voter resources under “How to be an
Informed Voter,” and review multiple
sources at www.LWVTN.org.

19. So when and where are retention
elections held? Good question.
Retention elections happen every 8 years in
August—at the same time as state primaries
and county general elections.
THE NEXT RETENTION ELECTION IS
AUGUST 7, 2014
Retention ballot questions usually are at the
end of the ballot. So vote the entire
ballot—all the way to the end of the form.
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20. That’s Thursday, August 7, 2014!
REMEMBER—It’s
YOUR VOTE.
BE INFORMED.
LEAGUE of WOMEN VOTERS of TENNESSEE
More info at LWVTN.ORG
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