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Press Releases

July 27, 2007

Judicial Process Continues to Roil Missouri

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

(Jefferson City) - The political tension gripping Missouri's judiciary grew more apparent Thursday as rival interest groups lambasted and lauded the three finalists among whom Gov. Matt Blunt is to appoint Missouri's newest Supreme Court judge.

A group advocating an overhaul in Missouri's judicial selection process denounced the three candidates as "blatantly liberal." A group defending the status quo praised the trio as "diverse and well-qualified."

But just as revealing as their words was the mere fact that Missouri now has multiple interest groups intensely focusing on the way its judges are selected - a scenario that didn't exist when a governor last filled a Supreme Court vacancy three years ago.

Blunt, a Republican who frequently criticizes "activist" judges, avoided labeling any of the finalists Thursday, pledging only that he would conduct a thorough interview process.

All three finalists submitted by the Appellate Judicial Commission are appeals judges: Nannette A. Baker of the Eastern District and Patricia A. Breckenridge and Ronald R. Holliger, both of the Western District state appeals court.

Blunt has 60 days to appoint one of them to replace Judge Ronnie White, who resigned July 6, or else the seven-member selection panel that whittled the applicants from 30 down to three will pick the court's next member.

The selection commission consists of the chief justice, three attorneys elected by Missouri Bar members and three people appointed by the governor - one of whom was named by Blunt and the other two by his Democratic predecessor.

Dissatisfaction with the selection process has been building among some Republicans, including Blunt, who contend the nominating panels don't always give the governor choices that match his conservative philosophy.

Within hours of the finalists' announcement, the Adam Smith Foundation - a self-described conservative group that has funded a Capitol billboard opposing "an activist court" - expressed "disgust with the blatantly liberal panel" of finalists.

Baker, of St. Louis, and Holliger, of Blue Springs, were appointed by Democratic governors as they rose from circuit to appellate judgeships. But Breckenridge, of Nevada, Mo., was elected as a Republican to the associate circuit court in Vernon County and later appointed to the appeals court by Republican Gov. John Ashcroft.

Adam Smith Foundation President John Elliott nonetheless contends Breckenridge is a closet liberal, pointing to campaign contributions her husband made to former Democratic Auditor Claire McCaskill and contending - without citing specific examples - that some of her rulings have a liberal bent.

Former Supreme Court Judge Edward "Chip" Robertson Jr., a Republican who was Ashcroft's chief of staff before he was appointed to the high court, contends such assertions are ridiculous.

"If one studies their judicial opinions...all three of them have been disciples of the law - not of politics and not of policy," said Robertson, one of the founders of Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts, which filed paperwork Thursday with the secretary of state's corporations office.

Robertson said the new group, which also lists former Democratic Party executive director Jim Kottmeyer as a contact, intends to defend Missouri 's judicial selection process against those seeking to change it.

This is the second successive time Baker has made it to the final three. In 2004, Democratic Gov. Bob Holden instead appointed Judge Mary Russell to the Supreme Court.

Holliger and Breckenridge also have been in the spotlight before. Holliger was part of a special six-member panel of appeals judges who in 2002 redrew Missouri's state House and Senate districts after citizen redistricting commissions failed to agree on new boundaries based on the 2000 census.

Breckenridge was part of a three-judge appeals court panel that in 1996 upheld the conviction of impeached former Democratic Secretary of State Judi Moriarty for backdating her son's 1994 election filing paperwork.

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