Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile proposes that all nominees for the position of Supreme Court chief justice–vacated by the recent conviction of ex-CJ Renato Corona via impeachment trial–be made to undergo a Bar examination. The idea, presumably, is to weed out those CJ-wannabes whose mastery of the law is absent or poor, leaving only the topnotchers who must therefore be the nation’s best legal minds.
But I’m not sure that subjecting the aspirants to another Bar exam will necessarily raise the bar for selection of a new Chief Justice. I have a different approach. Continue reading “Raising the bar for Chief Justiceship”