With support from The Joyce Foundation and the Open Society Institute, the ABA Standing Committee on Judicial Independence formed the Commission on Public Financing of Judicial Campaigns in 2000 to examine the feasibility of using public funds to replace private financing of judicial election campaigns.
The Report of the Commission on Public Financing of Judicial Campaigns, issued in February 2002, was the first and most comprehensive report of its kind. It calls on states that continue to elect their judges to implement voluntary systems of full public financing for judicial campaigns.