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The election this season is just about here, and there will be some very important constitutional
amendments on the ballot in Novemeber. You may not hear as much about them as you do
about the office elections. So here to tell us what one of those amendments is all about
is Andy Crouppen of Brown and Crouppen. Good morning sir. How are you.
Good morning. Good.
This is an important one in your field, but we want to talk about how judges are elected
and/or appointed, and there are some changes that are being proposed.
It is. You know, people think it just affects lawyers, but the reality is that it affects
all of us, because really what it affects is our civil justice system.
Okay. Talk to us about how it is done right now.
Right now, what happens is there is a judicial commission, so when there is a judicial vacancy
-- a judge leaves...
... for whatever reason.
... for whatever reason -- lawyers send their recommendations to the judicial commission.
The judicial commission currently is 3 lawyers who are elected by lawyers, 3 non-lawyers
who are appointed by the governor, and then a sitting member of the Missouri Supreme Court
who they decide to send their representative, so there are 7 people.
So you have to be recommended for that position. If I'm a lawyer and I want to be a judge,
I can't just send in an application.
Right, right. The lawyers will send in their recommendations to the commission. The commission
will look at those recommendations, and they will pick 3 of those people. They will send
their 3 recommendations then on to the governor. The governor will then pick the judge, who
will ultimately sit as a judge, and then... ultimately will have to face election to be
maintained...
... relected. It's not even reelection. It's your first opportunity. Once you are appointed
to that position, in order to retain it, you have to get the popular vote during an election.
Exactly. And just to give you a little history...
So the public does have some input on this?
Eventually. Eventually. But that is after they have the opp... it's a merit-based plan,
so that's after they've had the opportunity to see for a little while how this judge has
in fact done his job or her job. Originally what happened, Missouri originally had judges
just appointed by the governor, and there was a fear that it was too weighted to the
top. The governor was affecting the civil and criminal justice system single-handedly
by the judges he or she selected.
So what is being proposed now in the house? This is the Missouri house where this proposal
is.
Well, right. So what is happening is they are proposing changing instead of 3 lawyers,
3 non-lawyers, and a judge, what the proposal is, I believe there will still be a judge
sitting on the commission, but that person will not have a vote. So the vote will be
3 lawyers and then the governor will now appoint 4 members. While a lot of people say, "Oh,
it's just a change of one person," that's a pretty valuable person because it is more...
So does the governor appoint these members of the judicial committee?
Correct. That's the proposal is that the governor, instead of appointing 3 will now appoint 4.
Traditionally the governor's appointments were lay people. Now, what the proposal is
not only does the governor go from 3 to 4 appointments, he can also appoint lawyers.
So it really is taking what is currently called the non-partisan court plan...
... checks and balances.
and I think it really is making it a lot more partisan, because you have the governor who
sits at the top of our government, can now have 4 votes essentially on this panel, some
of which are lawyers, which I think injects a lot of politics into this. You know, just...
if the goal is to make it... I think the argument is the non-partisan plan, they are saying
is not non-partisan and they want to make it non-partisan, although... There has been
a lot of political discourse over this issue, and it has become a very hot issue. So if
in fact the change is to make it nonpartisan, I am not sure why there is so much politics
involved. It kind of makes you wonder what is really going on, but I think what is going
to happen is we are essentially returning to our original -- and I'm talking original,
1800's -- setup of having the governor really responsible for appointing single-handedly
many of the judges in our state.
And I'm glad you came in and explained it to us, because this is an issue that is probably
not going to get as much air time as presidential elections and governor and everything else,
and I appreciate it.
Right. It should though because it affects all of us. It really does.
Thank you Andy. I appreciate it very much. If you have a legal question for Brown and
Crouppen, e-mail us at GreatDay@KMOV.com.