A Cole County judge allowed attorneys for a proponent of direct judicial elections to intervene in a lawsuit over an initiative petition’s ballot language. Last year, James Harris submitted a constitutional amendment for circulation to put judges chosen under the ...

Tagged with: Better Courts for Missouri Robin Carnahan

The Missouri Senate tackled alterations to the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan for the first time last year. But after the measure failed to come to a vote in the Senate, legislative prospects are dim this year for changing the system ...

Tagged with: Better Courts for Missouri James Harris Jared Craighead Jim Lembke judicial selection Missouri House Missouri Senate Nonpartisan Court Plan Ron Richard Stanley Cox Todd Graves

A group seeking to change the way judges are chosen announced Wednesday that it had filed a new ballot item requiring direct elections for judges. Under the current Nonpartisan Court Plan, judicial commissions select three finalists from an applicant pool ...

Tagged with: Better Courts for Missouri James Harris Nonpartisan Court Plan

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan on Tuesday approved a proposed constitutional amendment for circulation that would effectively scrap the Nonpartisan Court Plan. And the leader of the group pushing for repeal of the current iteration of the plan said his ...

Tagged with: ballot initiative Better Courts for Missouri James Harris Missouri Bar Nonpartisan Court Plan Robin Carnahan

Just as Judge Sonia Sotomayor sat down in Washington to experience the federal system's method of approving court nominees, a group in Missouri said the state should vet its judges in a similar way. Better Courts for Missouri said Monday that it has filed an initiative petition that would replace the Nonpartisan Court Plan with one modeled after the federal "advise and consent" system.

Tagged with: Better Courts for Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan

Missouri House Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt, R-Blue Springs, right, chats with Missouri Sen. Jim Lembke, R-St. Louis, before moderating a panel discussion about the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan at the Millennium Hotel in downtown St. Louis on Thursday. James Harris, head of Better Courts for Missouri, said that his group is considering collecting voter signatures for a ballot measure in 2010, even as another attempt is made in the Legislature to overhaul the Nonpartisan Court Plan.

Tagged with: Better Courts for Missouri Conservative Heartland Leadership Conference James Harris Nonpartisan Court Plan The Missouri Bar

The Missouri Supreme Court has denied an open-records request from a group that advocates changing Missouri’s process for selecting judges. The organization is planning legal action. Better Courts for Missouri filed a Sunshine Law request with the court earlier this ...

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How many times is too many to be nominated for a spot on a Missouri appellate court? A group that criticizes the state’s method of selecting judges issued a statement Wednesday, calling for the Appellate Judicial Commission to send the ...

Tagged with: Appellate Judicial Commission Better Courts for Missouri James Harris Jay Nixon Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts