Ariston Johnson is Watford City-based attorney who is challenging incumbent Supreme Court Justice Jerod Tufte, who is in the process of wrapping up his first 10-year term on the court.

There are actually two Supreme Court races on the ballot this cycle. Justice Douglas Bahr is running to have his appointment by Gov. Doug Burgum to finish former Justice Gerald VandeWalle's term confirmed by voters.

Why is Johnson challenging Tufte and not Bahr? He said it's because defeating Tufte would mean a full term on the court. Also, Bahr, a former government attorney, has more of the experience Johnson believes the state's top court needs. "Frankly, if the election ballot offered Ari Johnson or Douglas Bar, I would vote for Douglas Bar because the court needs that. perspective," Johnson said on this episode of Plain Talk.

He also addressed the increased politicization of the judiciary. At the national level, U.S. Supreme Court justices are now routinely referred to by their ideologies. In other states, like Wisconsin, judicial elections have become hyper-partisan affairs. So far, that hasn't happened in North Dakota, and Johnson says he doesn't want it to.

"I am myself generally apolitical. I don't bring my politics to work and I would not bring them to the Supreme Court," he said. "It is a nonpartisan race and it should be a nonpartisan job."

"If the law compels a decision, then the Supreme Court should make that decision. If the law is wrong, the legislature should write a better law," he continued. "Judges shouldn't decide policy and they shouldn't decide law. They should apply the law under our constitutional system with the checks and balances."

Also on this episode, me and former Gov. Ed Schafer, who served as a guest co-host, discussed the tragic passing of state Rep. Liz Conmy, the complications existing term limits laws impose on the process of appointing her replacement, and whether Measure 1, which would reform those current term limits laws, is something voters should support.

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