Seattle lawyer Elizabeth Berns has been endorsed by two retired state Supreme Court justices in her campaign for King County Superior Court. But the King County Bar Association's screening committee deemed her unfit for the bench.

It's the second time this year that a well-respected, female, minority judicial candidate in King County received a "not qualified" rating from the committee, and it's raising questions about the process by which the weighty evaluations are made.

Former Justice Faith Ireland endorsed Berns and says she's dumbfounded by the rating. Berns, who is gay, and public defender Hong Tran, who is a Vietnamese immigrant, both received "not qualified" ratings, though Tran's has been suspended after other lawyers and judges came to her defense.

Ireland says the ratings suggest the process is broken, and that it should be more transparent and consistent.

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Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle