Battleground Missouri
August 28, 2008
Gavel Grab – the blog of the George Soros-funded outfit Justice at Stake – and other proponents of letting judicial Star Chamber’s choose judges are keeping close tabs on Missouri these days. Just last week, the state’s judicial selection commission sent a slate of three candidates to Gov. Matt Blunt to fill a state Supreme Court vacancy. The governor now has 60 days to pick from this list or the judicial selection commission will make the final decision.
Missouri was the first state to end democratic elections for judges in favor of “merit” selection – where a small panel of lawyers meets behind closed doors to pick judges. The original idea was to take partisan “politics” out of judicial selection – but by this measure, the commission has been an abysmal failure.
Just last year, Gov. Blunt publicly tangled with the commissioners – including Chief Justice Laura Denvir Smith, who chairs the nominating panel. Gov. Blunt wanted judicial candidates who would interpret the law rather than legislate from the bench. But Missouri’s seven-member judicial selection commission – where trial lawyers hold a controlling majority – balked, nominating instead activist judges who did not share the governor’s judicial philosophy.
Gov. Blunt eventually relented – and this year the commission seems to be trying to force his hand again by nominating a former trial lawyer, an activist appellate court judge and a candidate who was already rejected by the governor for a lower court.
The Wall Street Journal has already called on Gov. Blunt to reject the commission’s choices and push for reforming the system or abolishing it altogether and give the vote back to the people.
Merit selection states have already proven you can’t get politics out of the court system. The real issue is who does the choosing – voters through elections or their elected representatives, or lawyers working to help their own.
So far, Gov. Blunt has had little to say about the commission’s choices. Unlike the commission, which meets in secret, Gov. Blunt has pledged an “open and transparent” selection process. That’s certainly a step in the right direction. But the real answer is to scrap judicial Star Chambers, end the closed-door meetings, and give voters back the right to choose judges in open, democratic elections.