Litigation

Attack on Merit Falls Short in Missouri

By Charlie Hall

A plan to revise Missouri’s merit selection system failed on Friday, when the Senate adjourned without voting on a proposed constitutional amendment that would have given elected offiicials more influence in the appointment of appeals court judges.

According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, the Senate spent its last day focusing on a jobs bill and unemployment benefits. It never considered the judicial selection measure, despite having held several hours of debate on it in recent weeks.

Supporters of the revisions, led by Better Courts for Missouri, have said they may use a petition drive to take their initiative directly to voters, but the group’s web site made no mention, by early afternoon today,  of the Senate’s decision not to act. The Missouri Bar Association had strongly opposed the proposed amendment, saying it would inject politics into the state courts.

As mentioned in a recent Gavel Grab posting, BCM had run television ads and robo-calls last week in hopes of prodding the Senate into action. It did win approval for its proposed amendment in the House, after failing in a similar vote last spring.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 18, 2009 (boomark / email).