Alva Review-Courier -

The United States government consists of three “branches: executive (headed up by the president), legislative (Congress), and judicial (courts from the “district” level up to the Supreme Court).

Sometimes – but not always – voters ignore the judicial branch in an election year. Certainly one reason for this is that, unlike members of the other two branches, judges are not elected.

Every judge on every U.S. court must be appointed by the president and ratified by majority vote in the U.S. Senate.

Savvy voters know, of course, that the makeup of the courts depends upon who wins the elections tha...