NEWS CLIPS

Illinois-icizing Missouri’s judges

Missouri and Illinois take entirely different approaches to selecting judges for their courts of appeals — the multi-judge panels charged with reviewing decisions of lower courts.

When a vacancy occurs on one of Missouri’s three appellate courts (Eastern, Western and Southern), lawyers and lower-court judges who want to move up to the appeals bench file applications with the seven-member Appellate Judicial Commission. The commission consists of the chief judge of the state Supreme Court, three people elected by members of the Missouri Bar and three people appointed by the governor for terms that do not coincide with the governor’s.

The commission selects three nominees from among the applicants, and the governor makes his selection from among these three. Just last month Gov. Matt Blunt appointed three appeals court judges, one Republican and two moderate Democrats, all well qualified candidates. No fuss, no muss, no bother.

In Illinois, they do things a little differently. In Illinois they have a dog fight.
Consider the vacancy on Illinois’ 5th District Court of Appeals, which covers the 37 counties south of Springfield. The vacancy was created when Judge Terrance Hopkins died in 2006. The Illinois Supreme Court appointed Circuit Court Judge James M. Wexstten of Mount Vernon to fill the seat until November 2008, when the next judicial election takes place.

Illinois elects all its judges in partisan elections, even appeals court and Supreme Court judges. Judge Wexstten, a Democrat, would be considered a lock for the seat because no Republican candidates have filed. But he drew a well-funded opponent in the Feb. 5 primary: trial lawyer Judy Cates of Swansea, who, as a partner in a firm that specialized in class-action lawsuits, earned millions in legal fees.

Illinois also has no limit on campaign contributions to political candidates; as recently as 2004, a race for a Supreme Court seat drew a total of $9 million in contributions that paid for hundreds of negative ads. Campaign finance reports in the Cates-Wexstten race are not due until later this month and won’t reflect contributions received after Jan. 1, but Judge Wexstten and Ms. Cates already have ads running on television.

Both signed a pledge with the Illinois Bar vowing to conduct a civil campaign, but tempers are beginning to flair. A Cates campaign ad described her as "the only candidate who believes that politics as usual and political influence have no place in judicial races or in the courtroom." She based this on the fact that Judge Wexstten has racked up endorsements from 36 county Democratic organizations and 37 county Democratic chairmen.

Judge Wexstten calls this "an outrageous attack" on his integrity. Ms. Cates’ campaign manager replied that it’s her First Amendment right to debate the independence of the judiciary. Pledge or no pledge, between now and Feb. 5, things probably will get nastier.

The odd thing is that some people in Missouri would like to toss out Missouri’s model system and bring Illinois-style judicial dogfights to Missouri. Rep. Jim Lembke, R-South County, wants voters in November to amend the state constitution to "restore a proper democratic check on the judiciary."

Mr. Lembke’s House Joint Resolution 52 would allow the governor, the state attorney general and legislative leaders to appoint members of the judicial selection panels, all of whom would serve at the pleasure of the official who appointed them. The proposal also would open up the commission’s interviewing process, which is closed under existing law. And it would give the state Senate the right to confirm or reject judicial nominees.

Mr. Lembke’s plan would not Illinois-icize (to coin a phrase) the judicial selection process completely, but it would make Missouri’s process considerably worse, leaving judges far more vulnerable to political pressure and beholden to contributors. The only way we could call Mr. Lembke’s plan an improvement would be if he moved to say, Collinsville, won a seat in the Illinois House and introduced it there.

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