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Today on #52courts52weeks, we head to the Show Me State on the 79th anniversary of their adoption of a new method of selection and retention for judges, which is colloquially known as the Missouri Plan. /1
The system known as the Missouri Plan had been floating around for many years before it was adopted on 11/5/40. The system was adopted in large part to reduce the influence of the political machine run by Tom Pendergast /2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Pendergast">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_...
The Missouri Plan works like this: Upon a judicial vacancy a non-partisan commission (the Appellate Judicial Commission in Missouri), reviews applicants for the position, and certifies a number of them (3 in Missouri) from which the governor must choose /3
After a period of time (1 year in Missouri), the incumbent must stand for an uncontested, retention election. The incumbent must win a simple majority of the vote to win an additional 12 year term (some states require more than a majority). /4
Sometimes called merit selection, empirical scholars have pushed back at this moniker. Choi, Gulati and Posner examined qualifications of both elected and appointed judges and found no systematic differences /5 https://flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/professional-political-judges.pdf">https://flaglerlive.com/wp-conten...
Also, judicial retention elections experience a high degree of ballot roll-off, meaning voters vote at the top of the ballot, but don& #39;t vote for judges. Klein and Baum argue that when ballots which provide no information or choice cause this behavior /6 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/106591290105400402">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/1...
To remedy these low-information elections, states instituted judicial performance evaluations. According to @msGSXR however, JPEs (like the one in Missouri) are systematically biased against women and minorities. /7 http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=political_science_articles">https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewc...
Critics have argued the Missouri Plan may stifle judicial diversity by empowering elites. Hurwitz and @Prof_Lanier find this isn’t the case, noting no statistical difference between methods of selection and diversity on state appellate courts /8 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Drew_Lanier/publication/258188791_Explaining_Judicial_Diversity_The_Differential_Ability_of_Women_and_Minorities_to_Attain_Seats_on_State_Supreme_and_Appellate_Courts/links/552c0e4c0cf29b22c9c3e8f0/Explaining-Judicial-Diversity-The-Differential-Ability-of-Women-and-Minorities-to-Attain-Seats-on-State-Supreme-and-Appellate-Courts.pdf">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D...
The first woman to join the Missouri Supreme Court was Ann Covington, nominated by Gov. John Ashcroft in 1988. She also became the female Chief Justice of the court in 1993, and stayed in this position until 1995. She retired from the Court in 2001. /9
The Missouri Plan is often viewed as the least political selection system. How apolitical is this process and how apolitical has it made judges? Let& #39;s examine the career and story behind Ronnie L. White, the first African-American to sit on the Missouri Supreme Court. /10
Judge White was appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court in 1995 by Governor Mel Carnahan. Judge White served until 2007, when he retired from the court. He had tried to leave earlier, twice, but something got in his way. /11
On two separate occasions, President Bill Clinton had nominated Judge Ronnie L. White to the federal bench. These nominations were opposed by Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri: a political rival of Governor Mel Carnahan. /12
Ashcroft had said that Judge White was too "pro-criminal," which many took to be a racially based attack. Governor Carnahan, whom had originally appointed White, decided to challenge Ashcroft for his seat in the Senate in 2000. /13
That 2000 Senate election race was exceedingly close until Carnahan died in a tragic plane accident. Since his name could not be removed from the ballot, he won the election posthumously beating Ashcroft, His widow, Jean Carnahan, was nominated to serve for him. /13
White was ultimately nominated and confirmed to the federal bench under President Obama in 2014, almost 15 years after his first appointment in 1999. /14 https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/road-to-the-federal-bench-touched-many-political-hot-rails/article_5bf2c6b1-03a8-5bec-a79d-1f31dfca9f40.html">https://www.stltoday.com/news/loca...
All judicial selection systems are political, even the Missouri Plan, even in Missouri. Next week with @ProfLeonard_ISU, we visit another state that uses the Missouri Plan, Oklahoma, to examine their Court of Criminal Appeals, next week on #52courts52weeks