The workshop, American Justice for Sale, debates whether justice in America is really something that is guaranteed to us or something that has been paid for. For a many decades, America was the country with freedom and justice. But now, the question arises. Is justice something we have or is it something we buy with our own money? The discussion starts off with an evaluation of the history of the American judicial system. Judges are chosen by state legislatures and there are advantages and disadvantages to that. The advantages are that it is democratic, citizens get to know the judges, and judges can be ousted if they did not do well. The disadvantages are that judges have to campaign and popularity of judges may cause the election to be not as effective as hoped. The speakers then went on and explained how justice may be brought. Throughout election campaigns, judges often had money donated to them from different parties and companies. Sure, donating money does not affect the votes, but such donations may indeed allow parties and companies to bring judges on their side.
There are many arguments for and against the thought that justice is being sold out to the citizens of U.S. Over history, campaigns had been events where people spent the most money. Television broadcasts, radio messages, newspaper advertisement; these all require a huge amount of money. Without much money, is one candidate able to compete other candidates who has the ability to pay for all those expenses? If a judge is not as wealthy as another one does that mean his/her ability is not up to par with the other one? On the other hand, there is a huge possibility that parties and companies do use money to get on the good side of a judge. In one campaign, one of the parties spent approximately 3 million dollars on a judge. Is that really necessary? There may never be a answer to whether justice is being sold in America or not. People just have to know where to draw the line.