The time to make important improvements to the Missouri Plan for selecting judges is NOW. Please Get Involved and restore checks and balances in Missouri.

Go here to sign our simple online petition.

And be sure to use this handy form to send your legislators a letter.

Please sign your name to this petition and pass it along to other Missourians. Let legislators know it is time to fix the way judges are picked in Missouri.

According to This AP story regarding judicial selection reform, the Missouri Bar's lobbyist believes our efforts are "a solution in search of a problem."

Unfortunately, the facts are against him.

PROBLEM: Seventeen of the last eighteen nominees to the Supreme Court have come from one major party.

Non-partisan?

PROBLEM: One of the nominees to replace Judge White on the Supreme Court had THE lowest Bar Rating of any appellate or Supreme Court Judge in the 2006 retention election.

Merit?

PROBLEM: Though they represent less than 10% of the legal profession, the elite trial lawyers of MATA have had overwhelming influence on the Appellate Judicial Commission, the commission that selects judges. (Currently, ALL of the lawyer-members of the Commission are either MATA leaders or active with the organization.) No organization in the state of Missouri has a more direct financial interest in appointing judges.

Accountable?

PROBLEM: The current process is conducted in absolute secrecy, opening the door for special interests to hijack the process. If the current system is the best in the world:

Why keep it so secret?

PROBLEM: The current process discriminates against minorities. As former Representative Elbert Walton pointed out recently, there has never been an African American elected by the Missouri Bar to the lawyer-member slots on the Appellate Judicial Commission.

SOLUTION: We support the Missouri Plan because we believe it has a strong foundation of checks and balances. But over the years, through legislative changes or mere passing of time, politics and cronyism have diminished the Missouri Plan's ability to live up to the honorable goals of its drafters. It is time to improve the Missouri Plan. It is time for a New Missouri Plan. Let's have a debate over the real flaws and stop pretending the current process is perfect.

Better Courts for Missouri stood yesterday with a bipartisan group of legislators and lawyers to announce the filing of an initiative petition to improve the way Missouri's judges are selected.

See the summary of the initiative petition and the amendment language here.

This memo to Missouri Legislators describes the special interest backgrounds of some of the Appellate Judicial Commissioners. After reading the memo, you may begin to have doubts about the "non-partisan" nature of the judicial selection panel.

Read the memo here.

Better Courts for Missouri Coalition leaders express optimism as they achieve two important milestones in their effort to modernize the Missouri Plan for selecting judges.

Read the full press release here.