Speaker 1: To encourage Oklahoma's to get more acquainted with their state
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. It's why we've set up the Oklahoma Judicial Scorecard.
Speaker 1: To our knowledge, it's the first publicly available scorecard of
Speaker 1: how Oklahoma Supreme Court justices have ruled on consequential cases
Speaker 1: over the years. And that's Okla judges dot com ok
Speaker 1: La judges dot com.
Speaker 2: Oh, well, you know this is neat because we got
Speaker 2: the election coming up and a lot of people we're
Speaker 2: talking about this in the green room. We don't really
Speaker 2: have a green room. I'm just kidding, but day and
Speaker 2: we were talking beforehand that people say, yeah, wow, it's
Speaker 2: the big presidential election. Well who else you're voting fort what?
Speaker 2: And the downpote They get a little oh my, how
Speaker 2: what am I doing? And this is kind of what
Speaker 2: we're here to do. Thank you? We have how many
Speaker 2: judges do we have running for the Supreme Court?
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir. So there's non justices total on the court.
Speaker 1: They have six year terms. They're staggered terms, so every
Speaker 1: election cycle we usually have two or three up on
Speaker 1: a retention vote. They don't run in Canada versus candidate elections,
Speaker 1: but three of them are up in November for a
Speaker 1: retention vote.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk about those for retention. How do these
Speaker 2: score with your group?
Speaker 1: Well, it's very interesting. A lot of folks are assumed
Speaker 1: that because we have Republicans in control at the state
Speaker 1: legislature and we have a Republican in the governor's office,
Speaker 1: surely we have a right leaning state Supreme Court. That's
Speaker 1: actually not the case. Outside groups outside of Oklahoma have
Speaker 1: rated our state Supreme Court. It's the fourth most liberal
Speaker 1: in the country. Only Maryland, West Virginia, and Hawaii have
Speaker 1: more consistently liberal supreme courts. So the three who are
Speaker 1: up this November, Justices Gurichkagar and Edmundson, have been three
Speaker 1: of the most liberal on the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and
Speaker 1: so they're up for a retention vote, which is a
Speaker 1: yes or no whether to keep them on the court.
Speaker 2: Okay, and then we have other people who are running
Speaker 2: for the at large positions.
Speaker 1: Correct, No, it's just these three who are up for retention.
Speaker 1: So if they if more than fifty percent of the
Speaker 1: voters vote to not retain them, so vote no, then
Speaker 1: these three will be out off of the court and
Speaker 1: there will be three vacancies on the Supreme court that
Speaker 1: will then need to be filled.
Speaker 2: Okay, now I'm understanding. Now this is how a lot
Speaker 2: of folks are out there and driving in their car
Speaker 2: going I did not know that. Absolutely. Yeah, so we've
Speaker 2: got that all taken care of. That is super yes, wonderful. Now,
Speaker 2: and tell us about some of the other folks who
Speaker 2: are kind of up for this.
Speaker 1: Well, So the three who are up for attention this November,
Speaker 1: or Justices Gurich, Cougar, and Edmondson, they do not have
Speaker 1: very high scores on the judicial scorecard at Oakland judges
Speaker 1: dot com, which is basically just a look at how
Speaker 1: did the justices on the court align with conservative judicial principle. Sure, so,
Speaker 1: they've typically voted in sync with trial attorneys and the
Speaker 1: trial bar on raising the cost of doing business in Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: throwing out conservative reforms on lawsuit reform, at tort reform,
Speaker 1: and workers comp perform that small businesses and manufacturing really
Speaker 1: rely on those reforms to be able to keep their
Speaker 1: doors open, and these folks have been throwing those reforms out.
Speaker 1: They've also done some other interesting things too. A lot
Speaker 1: of people remember during COVID and twenty a lot of
Speaker 1: states on the coast in the Upper Midwest were throwing
Speaker 1: out a lot of election protections, a lot of things
Speaker 1: that secured, in particular mail in ballots, and our state
Speaker 1: Supreme Court in Oklahoma did the same darn thing. They
Speaker 1: weakened our mail in ballot laws and the security of
Speaker 1: our elections here in Oklahoma. The Legislature was able to
Speaker 1: come back in and shore it up somewhat, but our
Speaker 1: mail in ballot laws are less secure now because of
Speaker 1: these three justices. These are also the folks who you
Speaker 1: may recall a few years ago there was a Ten
Speaker 1: Commandments monument at our state capital that had been privately funded,
Speaker 1: and the ACLU and literally the Church of Satan made
Speaker 1: some noise about that, say, we have separation of church
Speaker 1: and state here in America, and we shouldn't have that,
Speaker 1: even though the Ten Commandments are on display at the
Speaker 1: US Supreme Court, and our state Supreme Court sided with
Speaker 1: the ACLU and the Church of Satan and said we've
Speaker 1: got to get those out of the state capitol and
Speaker 1: they are no longer there. And these are three of
Speaker 1: the folks for attention, Gurich, Kauger and Edmondson who were
Speaker 1: a part of that.
Speaker 2: Wow, this is very important to know about your state
Speaker 2: Supreme Court justices for a lot of folks who just
Speaker 2: kind of casually just said, oh, well, you're getting the
Speaker 2: big wake up call today.
Speaker 1: We're trying to put this information in front of folks.
Speaker 1: Some folks are going to say, well, I agree with
Speaker 1: all those decisions, and so I want these folks to
Speaker 1: stay on the court. So I'm going to vote yes
Speaker 1: to retain them. That's their decision. Other folks are when
Speaker 1: they learned some of these things, When they learned that
Speaker 1: all three of these justices were appointed by former Democrat governors,
Speaker 1: a lot of people think, well, we have a Republican
Speaker 1: governor now, so all our justices must have been appointed
Speaker 1: by them. That's not the case at all. And so
Speaker 1: we are trying to put this info in front of
Speaker 1: people and so they can make an informed decision.
Speaker 2: Now, some of these have been around for many years.
Speaker 2: We have some that have been on for what almost
Speaker 2: twenty five years, and one who's a current justice. Again,
Speaker 2: this has been on since nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for that question. So Justice Cougar has
Speaker 1: been on the Oklahoma Supreme Court longer than Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: has been in Congress, and is of a similar liberal
Speaker 1: persuasion as Nancy Pelosi. So she's been on there quite
Speaker 1: a long time. She's up for attention in November as
Speaker 1: our girch and Edmondson, and yes vote would keep these
Speaker 1: liberal folks on the court. A no vote would remove
Speaker 1: them from the court and create an opening.
Speaker 2: Wow. We tell us where we can find all this
Speaker 2: information on your website.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Oaklad Judges dot com is the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma judicial scorecard where you can look and see how
Speaker 1: they voted on all these things, what their rulings have been.
Speaker 1: Oklad Judges dot com, ok La judges dot com.
Speaker 2: Wow, this is incredible. And as far as your grouping
Speaker 2: your website are concerned, you branch out, you cover a
Speaker 2: lot of different parts of government as far as things
Speaker 2: that you analyze correct, Yes.
Speaker 1: Sir, thank you so much. Our groups have been around
Speaker 1: starting in nineteen ninety three, not as long as Nancy
Speaker 1: Pelosi has been in Congress, but a little while. And
Speaker 1: we do stuff related to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, related
Speaker 1: to our judicial climate and whether we're a jackpot justice
Speaker 1: judicial hell whole state. So we do a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff related to that, encouraging folks to get more plugged
Speaker 1: in with what our state Supreme Court is doing and
Speaker 1: be more aware. We also do stuff. We like low taxes,
Speaker 1: we like less government in people's daily lives, government doing less,
Speaker 1: letting individuals and people do more. We're all about free speech.
Speaker 1: These justices have also ruled against a lot of free
Speaker 1: speech protections in some cases that we've had here in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: You think, well, that's just over in California or on
Speaker 1: the East Coast, it's actually starting to rear its head
Speaker 1: some here in Oklahoma too, and these three folks on
Speaker 1: the retention ballot have been a part of that. Those
Speaker 1: are just a few of the areas that we work on.
Speaker 1: Parental choice, in education, we're big on empowered bring parents
Speaker 1: and education. These folks have gone sideways on that too.
Speaker 2: David Bot, thank you very much for being with us today.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 2: Oh not a problem, folks, you've been watching and listening
Speaker 2: to our community can