Seventy years after Missouri enacted the nation’s first merit selection system for judges, a report from several public policy groups suggests the state is still a leader on that front. At the same time, the report’s authors tacitly endorsed at ...

Tagged with: judicial selection Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan Stanley Cox

A report released today describes Missouri as an “emerging battlefront” in the national fight over the best way to select judges. The report, “The New Politics of Judicial Elections, 2000-2009: Decade of Change,” describes Missouri’s recent legislative efforts to alter ...

Tagged with: judicial selection

The Missouri Senate tackled alterations to the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan for the first time last year. But after the measure failed to come to a vote in the Senate, legislative prospects are dim this year for changing the system ...

Tagged with: Better Courts for Missouri James Harris Jared Craighead Jim Lembke judicial selection Missouri House Missouri Senate Nonpartisan Court Plan Ron Richard Stanley Cox Todd Graves

 In the fight over Missouri’s method of selecting judges, history tends to repeat itself very quickly. Late last week, attorneys filed two legal challenges to a proposed constitutional initiative petition that would repeal the state’s Nonpartisan Court Plan. The proposal, ...

Tagged with: Cole County Initiative Petition James Harris judicial selection lawsuit Nonpartisan Court Plan

Politicians know that people would believe almost any claim if it is simple and if it is repeated many times. It is Messaging 101: the sound bite. In the debate over judicial selection, politicians pushing for changing our system repeat ...

Tagged with: judicial selection Missouri Plan Nonpartisan Court Plan Skip Walther

The Missouri Senate may debate changes to the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan after a resolution altering how some judges are selected passed out of a Senate committee. Rep. Stanley Cox’s proposed constitutional amendment would, among other things, add another gubernatorial ...

Tagged with: Appellate Judicial Commission judicial selection Kevin Engler Kurt Schaefer Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan Stanley Cox