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Opponents of judicial selection process form new group
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By Bob Watson
bwatson@newstribune.com
A new lobbying group hopes to circulate petitions this year seeking voter support to change Missouri's Nonpartisan Plan for selecting Supreme and Appeals Court judges.
Jonathan Bunch, the executive director for the new group, Better Courts for Missouri, said the group also will support efforts by several lawmakers to change the system that Missouri voters have endorsed several times since 1940.
“The decisions the Supreme Court make profoundly and deeply impact the lives of every Missourian,” Bunch told reporters during a Wednesday morning news conference on the court's front steps.
“It's important that the judges that sit on these courts are appointed by a process that is open and accountable to the people of Missouri,” he said. “We believe that it isn't open and accountable right now.”
Charles Harris, a Kansas City lawyer who currently is president of the Missouri Bar, said in a statement: “Despite the rhetoric, the fact remains that the Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan continues to be right for the people of Missouri because it is the least political way of selecting fair and impartial judges and it allows the people the final say on who sits on their courts.”
Bunch noted the state's Appellate Judicial Commission includes four attorneys - including the high court's chief justice - and “they are a small, insular groups who have their interests. They have a lot to add to the process, but we don't think they should dominate the process - (and they) are in no way accountable to Missourians.”
Under the Nonpartisan Plan, a seven-member panel that includes three lawyers who are elected by members of The Missouri Bar - the statewide organization all lawyers must join in order to practice law in the state - three non-lawyer citizens appointed by the governor, at staggered times, and a Supreme Court member who usually is the chief justice.
Any time there is a vacancy on the Supreme or appeals courts, the commission reviews applications, interviews candidates and then recommends three names to the governor, who must appoint one of those three within 60 days.
Bunch and others complain that process “is done in secret,” because only the final three candidates are identified, not all the people who apply.
Three Republican state representatives - Jim Lembke, St. Louis; Stanley Cox, Sedalia; and Ed Emery, Lamar - have introduced proposed changes to the state Constitution they say will eliminate partisan politics in the judicial selection process.
But former Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward D. “Chip” Robertson, now working as a private-practice lawyer in Jefferson City, told reporters: “I think this is a small group of people, unsupported in the state, who think there's something wrong in the state.”
Robertson heads a group arguing no change is needed in the courts, added: “This is a group of people who will not identify their funding sources and, in the end, what this is about is an attempt for the Legislature to gain more control over the way the judiciary operates.”
Robertson said a recent poll shows that neither the lawmakers' bills nor a petition campaign will gain a lot of public support.
Jonathan Bunch, the executive director for the new group, Better Courts for Missouri, said the group also will support efforts by several lawmakers to change the system that Missouri voters have endorsed several times since 1940.
“The decisions the Supreme Court make profoundly and deeply impact the lives of every Missourian,” Bunch told reporters during a Wednesday morning news conference on the court's front steps.
“It's important that the judges that sit on these courts are appointed by a process that is open and accountable to the people of Missouri,” he said. “We believe that it isn't open and accountable right now.”
Charles Harris, a Kansas City lawyer who currently is president of the Missouri Bar, said in a statement: “Despite the rhetoric, the fact remains that the Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan continues to be right for the people of Missouri because it is the least political way of selecting fair and impartial judges and it allows the people the final say on who sits on their courts.”
Bunch noted the state's Appellate Judicial Commission includes four attorneys - including the high court's chief justice - and “they are a small, insular groups who have their interests. They have a lot to add to the process, but we don't think they should dominate the process - (and they) are in no way accountable to Missourians.”
Under the Nonpartisan Plan, a seven-member panel that includes three lawyers who are elected by members of The Missouri Bar - the statewide organization all lawyers must join in order to practice law in the state - three non-lawyer citizens appointed by the governor, at staggered times, and a Supreme Court member who usually is the chief justice.
Any time there is a vacancy on the Supreme or appeals courts, the commission reviews applications, interviews candidates and then recommends three names to the governor, who must appoint one of those three within 60 days.
Bunch and others complain that process “is done in secret,” because only the final three candidates are identified, not all the people who apply.
Three Republican state representatives - Jim Lembke, St. Louis; Stanley Cox, Sedalia; and Ed Emery, Lamar - have introduced proposed changes to the state Constitution they say will eliminate partisan politics in the judicial selection process.
But former Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward D. “Chip” Robertson, now working as a private-practice lawyer in Jefferson City, told reporters: “I think this is a small group of people, unsupported in the state, who think there's something wrong in the state.”
Robertson heads a group arguing no change is needed in the courts, added: “This is a group of people who will not identify their funding sources and, in the end, what this is about is an attempt for the Legislature to gain more control over the way the judiciary operates.”
Robertson said a recent poll shows that neither the lawmakers' bills nor a petition campaign will gain a lot of public support.
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