Nonpartisan court plan has served Missouri well

In Monday's paper the Southeast Missourian reprinted a Wall Street Journal editorial that criticized Missouri's judicial selection process in nominating three attorneys for the governor to consider for appointment to the Supreme Court of Missouri. Moreover, as it has in the past, the Wall Street Journal continues to say that "Missourians have been unhappy with the system."

Before the Missouri Constitution was amended in 1940 to create the nonpartisan court plan, candidates for the Supreme Court of Missouri had to run statewide as Republicans or Democrats. Politics and money played a large role in determining who was elected. Missouri citizens found this unacceptable and established a committee to support a constitutional amendment to establish a better system for the selection of certain judges.

Rush Limbaugh Sr. was a member of that committee and served as chairman of the Speakers Division. The citizens of Missouri adopted that amendment, and it has served us well for more than 70 years and, in one form or another, has been adopted by the citizens of 38 other states.

No one can truthfully argue that the Missouri nonpartisan plan is perfect or that politics has been completely removed from the process. In that regard, by analogy, it is like Winston Churchill's famous quip about democracy: that it is the worst form of government except for all the others.

In 2010, opponents circulated initiative petitions trying to repeal the nonpartisan court plan. Those opponents failed because not enough Missourians would sign the petitions to put the issue on the ballot. This certainly refutes the Wall Street Journal's assertion that Missourians are unhappy with the system. As further evidence of its popularity, under a provision that allows circuit courts to become nonpartisan, in 2008 the citizens of Greene County (Springfield area) -- a well-recognized conservative area -- adopted the plan for the selection of its circuit and associate circuit judges.

During my lifetime, three local lawyers were nominated for the Supreme Court: James A. Finch Jr., John L. Oliver Jr., and Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. Jim and Steve were appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri and were outstanding members of that court.

In our area, Kenneth W. Shrum of Marble Hill and I were nominated under the nonpartisan court plan to the Missouri Court of Appeals and then-Governor Ashcroft appointed each of us to that position. The Eastern District of the Appeals Court on which I sat goes from Cape Girardeau County on the south to the Iowa line on the north and to almost Columbia on the west.

Can you imagine the amount of money a judicial candidate would have to raise for such a race? And what would the candidate have to promise?

If you want more politics in the selection of appellate judges, then go along with those like the Wall Street Journal who oppose the nonpartisan court plan. On the other hand, if you want to reduce the politics and the influence that money brings, please support the existing plan that has served the people of Missouri well for more than 70 years.

Stanley A. Grimm is a retired judge who formerly served on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District.