Benes Aldana, president of the National Judicial College and former chief trial judge for the U.S. Coast Guard, speaks during a Jackson Day lecture held Wednesday night at the Warren County Courthouse.

Polling shows that trust in societal institutions is down across the board.

The judiciary — the various levels of courts that make up our justice system — are no exception.

This year’s Jackson Day lecture held at the Warren County Courthouse focused on the causes and solutions for that lack of trust. An annual event hosted by the Robert H. Jackson Center, 2023 marks the 131st anniversary of Jackson’s birthday.

Born in Spring Creek, Jackson would rise to the highest levels of the legal system, serving on the Supreme Court as well as prosecuting Nazi war criminals in the wake of World War II.

Jackson is known as prolific writer and featured prominently in the lecture, given by Benes Aldana, former chief trial judge for the U.S. Coast Guard and current president of the National Judicial College, which is — as it sounds — a training ground for the nation’s judiciary.

Where do things stand in the area of public trust with our courts?

“It’s not a pretty picture,” Aldana explained, noting that 2022 brought the lowest recorded level of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, a metric determined prior to the court’s ruling in Dobbs that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade.

“There are a lot of culprits and some might surprise you,” he said, specifically highlighting the politicization of the judiciary, actions of state legislators and “explicit or implicit bias.”

Aldana pointed to attacks on judges by former presidents Trump, Obama, Bush and Clinton.

“Politically motivated attacks on judges are nothing new,” he said, noting that Trump “took the attacks to a new level.”

The ultimate questions is this — what do we do about it?

Aldana said one key step would be “ending partisan judicial elections.” But in state like Pennsylvania where appellate judges are elected by party, he encouraged voters to learn about candidates and be willing to speak out.

Part of his call for action in support of judicial partisan independence rests with judges themselves.

Aldana brought the argument back to Jackson in his opinion in a case that upheld an anti-community loyalty oath for labor union leaders.

“The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted constitutional right of each member to think as he will,” Jackson wrote and Aldana cited. “Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it. It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.”

“We have partially fallen into the error… allowing the judiciary to be undermined,” Aldana said. “It is not to late to climb out but we need to hurry.”