The Missouri Bar has announced their recommendation that St. Louis County Associate Circuit Judge Judy Preddy Draper not be retained in the upcoming election. She is only the third judge to receive this recommendation since 1940.

On the Bar’s website, their outline of her ratings includes the dubious distinction that Judge Draper was rated at a 3.00 or lower (out of a possible 5.00) in 16 of 18 categories. According to the same document, “any rating below 3.00 indicates a need for improvement” – essentially, she failed in all but two categories. Among her lowest scores were a 1.83 for legal competency and 1.97 for her understanding of procedural and evidential rules.

“While we agree Judge Draper should not be retained and applaud the Missouri Bar for recognizing that she is a poor judge, it is clear that the Missouri Plan is flawed. The last time Judge Draper was up for a retention election, only 27.5% of those surveyed recommend she be retained. She was still retained by a landslide. Now, she has scored even lower. Unfortunately, our ineffective court plan may mean she is retained again,” said James Harris of Better Courts for Missouri.

Years of trial lawyer control have done massive damage to our state’s tort system, putting our courts among the worst in the nation according to the Pacific Research Institute’s 2010 Tort Liability Index. PRI rates our state 45th in the nation for tort liability, just two spots above our notoriously corrupt neighbor to the east, Illinois. The only respectable score Missouri received was for our state’s cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases.

Unfortunately, even our tort reform laws – our state’s only bright spot in the PRI survey – are in danger if we continue to let trial attorneys have so much control over our courts. Attorneys have a vested interest in doing away with tort reform, as without caps they could expect to win millions of dollars from cases that would otherwise be capped at a reasonable amount.

To reverse the trend towards activism and pro-plaintiff courts, we must initiate real change in our judicial selection process. We have to bring openness and accountability to the system in order to reduce the influence of trial attorneys and other liberal special interest groups. Only by giving the people more control over the judicial selection process can we hope to turn our courts around.

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Elena Kagan’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court as the newest associate justice. By confirming a known supporter of judicial activism, the liberals who control our nation’s Senate have ensured that our Supreme Court remains prone to decisions that twist the meaning of our Constitution and overstep the bounds of the court.

Clearly, this is the liberals’ plan to ensure that our nation continues to bend to their will. President Obama has now had the opportunity to appoint two Supreme Court justices, and both have been liberal activists that have pushed our court further to the left.

Missouri’s Senators had an opportunity to stand up for common sense Missouri values, but they were split on the vote, with Senator Bond voting against Kagan’s confirmation and Senator McCaskill voting for her confirmation.