Judges are suing for their constitutional right to participate in voter guides. The James Madison Center for Free Speech is organizing the effort. Attorney James Bopp says the states are muzzling the judiciary and limiting the information people can bring to the voting booth.

“That’s unconstitutional under the First Amendment to have any such prohibition because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of judicial candidates to announce their views on disputed, legal and political issues.”

It’s called the Judicial Accountability Project. Judges would like to tell voters what organizations stand behind them or what Supreme Court justices they admire. Bopp says that’s not asking for the moon.

“Those questions just are asking judicial candidates to announce their views and are the very type of question the Supreme Court has ruled is constitutionally protected.”

Texas allows its judges to answer questionnaires. Kelly Shackelford of the Free Market Foundation says his state has an informed electorate.

“If people are going to have some way to intelligently vote and get the kind of judges they want, and to not have these kinds of activist judges who want to impose their will on the people.”

The Judicial Accountability Project is active in eight states, including Indiana, Florida, and Pennsylvania.