Three Minutes to Nowhere: The Sham of Judicial Reappointment Hearings
Every eight years in Virginia, judges come up for reappointment. In theory, this is a moment for public accountability. In reality, it is a tightly choreographed illusion—a performance in which citizens are granted three minutes to speak but denied any meaningful chance to be heard.
The reappointment process is billed as an opportunity for public input. Yet for the families who have suffered under a judge’s bias, incompetence, or misconduct, the experience is little more than a ritual humiliation.
This is how Virginia silences its people.
A Process Built to Ignore
The rules are simple. Members of the public may testify during judicial reappointment hearings held by the House or Senate Courts of Justice Committees. Each person gets three minutes.
There is no dialogue. No follow-up. No questions. No record of whether a single word influenced the outcome.
More often than not, the committee has already decided. In most cases, reappointments are a formality. Even judges with documented patterns of bias or misconduct glide through without challenge.
Families often travel long distances, take off work, prepare detailed statements, and relive traumatic events—all for a three-minute window that leads nowhere.
Stories That Fall on Deaf Ears
Dozens of Virginians have reported sharing deeply personal, well-documented testimony about judicial abuse, only to be met with blank stares from legislators.
Parents describe judges who ignored evidence of abuse. Survivors of domestic violence recount being silenced in court. Disabled individuals speak of ADA accommodations being denied.
Their words vanish into the void.
In some cases, judges with multiple formal complaints still receive reappointment without any discussion of those allegations. The public comment becomes a box to check, not a mechanism of accountability.
The Impact on Public Trust
When people participate in government processes and are visibly ignored, the damage is lasting. It sends a clear message: your story doesn’t matter.
The three-minute time limit is symbolic of a larger problem: Virginia’s judicial system is insulated from public scrutiny. Judges are not elected. They are chosen by political insiders. And when the public tries to intervene, the doors are already closed.
This is not oversight. This is theater.
What Needs to Change
To restore faith in Virginia’s judicial process, the state must overhaul how it handles public input:
- Require transparent reporting on the impact of citizen testimony
- Allow follow-up questions and open dialogue at hearings
- Provide independent investigations into allegations raised during public comment
- Create a public record of how many complaints have been filed against each judge
Three minutes of testimony is not accountability. It is a muzzle. Real reform demands real responsiveness.
What’s Next
In the next installment of our Broken Bench investigative series, Virginia Bay News will expose the powerful shield of judicial immunity — and how it allows judges to destroy lives with impunity.
Coming Soon: Shielded from Justice: How Judicial Immunity Protects Virginia’s Worst Judges.
If you or someone you know has been impacted by Virginia’s broken court system, contact Virginia Bay News Investigations. Your voice deserves to be heard.
Virginia Bay News 
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