Tennessee Plan - History

History

The Tennessee General Assembly adopted the Modified Missouri Plan in 1971 to apply to judges of the Tennessee Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals.

Two years later, the Democratic majority in the Legislature was alarmed that Republican Gov. Winfield Dunn was going to be able to appoint all five Supreme Court justices when the eight-year terms ended in 1974. The Legislature passed a bill to exempt the Supreme Court from the Modified Missouri Plan and return it to popular election, but it was vetoed by Dunn.

At the same time, Republicans in upper East Tennessee were pressing hard to create a new medical school at East Tennessee State University. Dunn, who was from Memphis, opposed the creation of a second state medical school that would compete for resources with the {University of Tennessee Health Science Center], which was in Dunn's hometown. Dunn vetoed the bill creating the medical school.

House Speaker Ned McWherter, D-Dresden, and Rep. Palma Robinson, R-Jonesborough, agreed to swap votes with McWherter providing some Democratic votes to override the medical school veto and Robinson providing some Republican votes to override the Supreme Court veto. The deal went down just as planned, created what's now known as the James Quillen School of Medicine and removed the Supreme Court from the Modified Missouri Plan.

From 1974 until 1994, justices of the Supreme Court stood for partisan election, but they were nominated by the executive committees of their respective parties. Reflecting the partisan balance of the state at the time, Democrats won every election for the Supreme Court in this time frame, often without Republican opposition.

The Modified Missouri Plan continued to apply to the two intermediate appellate courts. During the 20 years of the Modified Missouri Plan, no judges were removed from office by the voters.

In 1994, the Legislature overhauled the process to include the Supreme Court again, provide more evaluation of incumbent justices and provide more information to voters in advance of retention elections. The Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission was created to review and rate the performance of individual judges and publish that information. This became known as the Tennessee Plan.

Under the Tennessee Plan, one judge (State Supreme Court Justice Penny White) has been removed (1996). She was highly rated by the Evaluation Commission, but her opinion in a death penalty case became controversial.