NEWS CLIPS

Greene County knows how to pick judges

On Nov. 4, voters in Greene County -- the state’s 31st Judicial Circuit -- approved a ballot initiative that changes the county’s method for choosing the trial judges that hear cases in state court.

No longer will candidates for those positions have to campaign like candidates for political office. Instead, Greene County will use the Missouri non-partisan plan to select its trial judges and become the sixth judicial circuit in the state to do so -- along with the circuits serving Jackson, Clay, Platte and St. Louis counties and the city of St. Louis.

The change is remarkable not only because it represents a laudable example of voters getting it right on an important subject, but also because they rejected a misleading, well-financed opposition campaign.

The direct election of local judges may make sense in smaller communities in which would-be judges can become serious candidates through service and building a visible community reputation.

The premise of the Missouri Plan is that it is virtually impossible, especially in urban areas, for judicial candidates to become known to potential voters without engaging in conventional politics. That means raising money to conduct campaigns and possibly becoming indebted to donors, the kind of thing that can raise questions about a judge’s independence and even discourage worthy candidates from seeking the jobs.

The Missouri Plan spares candidates from that potentially compromising political activity by establishing judicial screening commissions. In the case of Greene County, the commission will consist of five people: two citizens appointed by the governor, two practicing lawyers elected by their peers and the chief appellate court judge in the district that includes Greene County’s judicial circuit.

When a vacancy occurs, the commission solicits and screens applicants and then chooses what its members believe are the best three men and women. The governor then chooses one of the three to appoint to the judgeship.

Voters continue to play a direct role in the process by exercising what amounts to veto power. After the governor makes his selection, the judge must stand for retention elections: one after the judge has completed one year in office and another at the end of each six-year term.

The process is familiar to voters throughout the state because it’s how all judges on the state Supreme Court and state appellate courts are selected and retained.

Despite the Missouri Plan’s clear record of protecting the independence of judges, the state has become a magnet for some conservative ideologues who have worked furiously against the plan. They have tried -- unsuccessfully, so far -- to get the state Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would overturn the plan.

They also raised and spent more than $100,000 to try to defeat the ballot proposition in Greene County, even trotting out former Missouri governor and Springfield resident John Ashcroft for a television ad.

The campaign relied on tired rhetoric claiming that a local vote for the Missouri plan would amount to turning over the judicial system to "elites" who do the bidding of trial lawyers. The exact opposite is the case. The Missouri Plan protects our judicial system from the influences of ideological rigidity and big-money special interests.

The evidence is on grim display in the many states that are dogged by nasty, obscenely expensive, free-for-all judicial elections in which special interests of all stripes spend millions to get their favored candidates elected to judgeships. Illinois, for example.

Two and half weeks ago, the good voters of Greene County saw through that nonsense and welcomed the Missouri Plan.