Story Published: Mar 16, 2010 at 9:37 PM PST
Story Updated: Apr 21, 2010 at 12:57 PM PST
Probably the biggest event was a state Supreme Court decision ruling in favor of the Idaho Judicial Council. The council had determined that Bradbury was violating state residency requirements by living part of the time in Grangeville and part of the time in Lewiston. The council said he needed to be a permanent resident of Idaho County, where his resident chambers are.
Bradbury contended he needed to maintain and sometimes stay at his home in Lewiston, so he could most effectively hear cases in the other two counties he serves: Clearwater and Lewis.
It was a bitter loss in the Supreme Court, especially coming a year after Bradbury lost a close race in his bid to serve on that very court.
Now Bradbury says he's going to give it another try.
He talked about it during an interview in Lewiston Tuesday,
"I came into a court system here in three counties where in the three years before I'd come on the bench there had been three trials," said Bradbury. "That's one trial a year. I thought that could be changed and I could do better. We're now at the end of seven years and I average 10 trials a year. I've brought the first full time judicial service to Clearwater and Lewis County since anybody can remember and the Supreme Court has made it impossible for me to continue to do that. So now we're back to a judge going there twice a month, instead of me going there twice a week. The conclusion I drew from all of that is if we're going to have any kind of change, it's going to have to be a systemic change. I thought it could be done locally. It's been proven that it can't and I'm going to run for an office where I think I can make a difference."
Bradbury ran in 2008 against Justice Joel Horton, losing by 253 votes out of over 150,000 cast.
This time he's running against Justice Roger Burdick. Bradbury said Burdick is a professional judge who's been appointed to all his positions.
"I really have a problem with appointments," said Bradbury. "The Idaho Constitution provides for the non-partisan election of judges and the tragedy or the irony is that we take judges who swear to uphold the constitution and who's job it is to ensure the constitution is honored, then we have judges retiring early, so their successors can be appointed and avoid elections."
Bradbury claims the current system of judicial appointments runs counter to the state constitution and that it reflects what he calls a "good old boy network."
"They're doing an end run around the constitution that they're sworn to uphold," said Bradbury. "In the last three years we've had 22 judges appointed. The only election was when I ran against Joel Horton. It's a disgrace, if they don't like the system - change the constitution. Don't thumb your nose at it. And that's what they've done. And if you don't think it's an old boys' system, what you should know is of the 22 judges, I'm talking about District Court, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, of the 22 appointees, only one's a woman."
