The Constitutional Law PAC was a center-right political action committee formed in the state of Washington to help elect candidates to the Washington Supreme Court and Washington State Court of Appeals.
Conservatives expressed concerns that the group's leadership was too liberal, while liberals criticized the committee as a conservative attempt to influence judicial elections. The center-left FairPAC was started in response.
The Candidate Evaluation Committee was chaired by Former King County Prosecutor Christopher T. Bayley a moderate Republican. Members of the committee were Seattle labor attorney Jerry Rubin of the law firm Stoel Rives (Democrat), Chehalis attorney Reneeâ Remund of the firm Vander Stoep, Remund and Blinks (Republican) and Senior Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Phil Sorenson (Democrat). In 2006 the committee formed a bi-partisan Candidate Evaluation Committee to issue rating for appellate level judicial candidates in Washington State. The committee issued two ratings for each candidate: "Judicial Qualifications" and "Judicial Philosophy".
The Judicial Qualifications rating relied on similar criteria to those used by the King County Bar Association and other bar associations. The possible ratings were âÂÂVery Well QualifiedâÂÂ, âÂÂWell QualifiedâÂÂ, âÂÂQualifiedâ and âÂÂUnqualifiedâÂÂ.
The committee based its "Judicial Philosophy" rating reflects on their understanding of a candidateâÂÂs âÂÂdeference to the law, constitution and established legal precedent.â An âÂÂAâ was used to indicate that the candidate showed complete deference to the law, constitution and established legal precedent. A âÂÂBâ was awarded for significant deference, a âÂÂCâ for partial deference, a âÂÂDâ for insufficient deference and an âÂÂFâ for little or no deference.
The committee rated four incumbent judges as âÂÂVery Well QualifiedâÂÂ, Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander, Judge Ronald E. Cox of the Court of Appeals, Judge Marlin Appelwick of the Court of Appeals, and Judge David Armstrong of the Court of Appeals. State Senator Stephen Johnson was the only non-incumbent rated Very Well Qualified.
Two candidates were rated âÂÂUnqualifiedâÂÂ, conservative Supreme Court challenger Jeanette Burrage and Joel M. Penoyar who was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 2005.