Missouri Plan - History and Spread of The Plan

History and Spread of The Plan

Missouri voters adopted the system by initiative petition in November 1940 after several very contentious judicial elections, which were heavily influenced by the political machine of Tom Pendergast. Most low-level judges in Missouri are elected, except in Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield, where the Missouri Plan is mandated by the state constitution for all judicial vacancies. After Missouri adopted this method for selecting judges, several other states adopted it, either in full or in part. The plan was put forth by a committee chaired by Luther Ely Smith, "founder" of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. .

The Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan has served as a model for thirty-four other states that use merit selection to fill some or all judicial vacancies. 23 states use the method or a variant for the state supreme court.

California uses a heavily modified version in which the Governor can theoretically nominate any California attorney who has practiced for ten years. But then the nominee must undergo an evaluation by the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation of the State Bar of California, which then forwards a nonbinding evaluation to the Governor. For superior court positions, the Governor can make an appointment after receiving a report from JNE. For appellate court positions, the Governor submits the nomination to the Commission on Judicial Appointments, consisting of the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, and the presiding justice of the affected Court of Appeal district (or the most senior presiding justice for Supreme Court nominations). The CJA holds a public meeting, and receives the report from the JNE Commission, then decides whether to confirm the nominee. Once confirmed, the judge can take office but then must go through retention elections (at different intervals for each level of the judiciary).