Gavel Grab

The Missouri media and online community are cautiously assessing the announcement Thursday of three potential nominees to the Supreme Court, to replace retiring Justice Stephen Limbaugh.

Question Number One: Will the slate spark a repeat of last year’s angry standoff, when Gov. Matt Blunt bitterly complained that a panel of three candidates submitted to him was not conservative enough for his liking?

Galvanized, critics led a full-scale assault on Missouri merit selection system. In the end, the legislature narrowly voted last spring to preserve the “Missouri Plan,” the nation’s oldest system for using commissions to nominate judicial candidates.

In the hours after the slate of Supreme Court candidates were announced, there was an air of caution and confusion.

Better Courts for Missouri, which led the campaign to end merit selection, said at least two of the three candidates, Appellate Judges Lisa White Hardwick and Ron Holliger, were not to their liking. They did not comment on the third candidate, Atchison County Associate Circuit Judge Zel Fischer.

Today, however, a Kansas City Star blog noted that Hardwick was praised last year by the Wall Street Journal and by the Adam Smith Foundation. Both are ardent foes of merit selection systems. The Journal editorial said that Hardwick, who is African African, was rejected by the commission for a Supreme Court vacancy last year because she “had apparently not been deferential enough to the bar association.”

Adding to the confusion, the Star blog said that the Adam Smith paper praising Hardwick was recently removed from the foundation’s web site. The paper, which said that Hardwick “distinguished herself at the
University of Missouri and later at Harvard Law School.” and was “superior” to a candidate selected last year ahead of her, was reposted online today, apparently after reporters asked about it.

According to news reports, Gov. Blunt said he would “thoughtfully review” the nominations. Here is a Kansas City Star article on the slate of nominees.

Supporters of the Missouri plan, which dates to 1940, say it has helped keep politics and special interest influence out of the process of selecting judges. As explained at the American Judicature Society web site, Missouri’s governor must appoint one of the commission’s three choices, or return to the commission and ask for new nominees.

Tags: American Judicature Society, Matt Blunt, Merit Selection, Missouri Plan, Missouri Supreme Court