The Battle Continues In Missouri
May 13, 2009
Better Courts for Missouri has launched an ad campaign calling for the legislature to pass HJR 10 – a measure designed to make the judicial selection process in Missouri more transparent, more accountable and less subject to special interest pressure. You can watch the ad here.
Elitist legal groups are pulling out all the stops to block HJR 10 and keep Missouri citizens in the dark about how their judges are picked and preserve what they’ve come to consider their divine right to decide who rules in our courtrooms. Whether they succeed or not, legal elites are clearly on the defensive. HJR 10 has put a permanent crack in the foundation of “merit” selection by exposing the absurdly anti-democratic nature of this system. Here’s a quick scorecard of the two sides in this debate:
- Proponents of HJR 10 want to apply Missouri’s Sunshine Law to the state’s judicial selection commission. Opponents believe the commission should continue meeting in secret.
- Proponents of HJR 10 want ordinary citizens to have a more prominent say in deciding who will control one-third of their state government. Opponents believe a single special interest group (lawyers) should keep picking judges.
- Proponents of HJR 10 want to increase accountability for judicial selection by requiring prospective judges to be confirmed by the Senate and allowing the Governor to pick from any of the qualified candidates, not just from the hand-picked list put together by lawyers. Opponents believe the judicial selection commission should be accountable to no one.
Even a die-hard Missouri Plan supporter like former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has endorsed a key provision of HJR 10, telling a group of Missouri law students back in March “you can’t have secret proceedings.” Apparently even this mild concession to transparency is too much for judicial selection star chambers to bear. I guess they figure if ordinary citizens see how lawyers are gaming the system to pick judges of their choosing, they might actually demand the restoration of their right to vote for judges in democratic elections. The horror!