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Three judges nominated to succeed Limbaugh
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By Bob Watson
bwatson@newstribune.com
Missouri's next Supreme Court judge will be from western Missouri - either Zel Fischer, Lisa White Hardwick or Ronald Holliger.
As required by the state Constitution, the Appellate Judicial Commission on Thursday sent Gov. Matt Blunt three names to succeed former Chief Justice Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., the Cape Girardeau native who last month left Missouri's high court for a seat on the U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
Fischer is an Atchison County associate circuit judge - an elected post, for which he's run as a Republican.
Hardwick and Holliger both sit on the Kansas City-based Western District state appeals court.
Both were appointed to the appeals court bench by Democratic governors - Mel Carnahan for Holliger and Bob Holden for Hardwick - and later kept on the bench with citizens' retention votes.
Holliger also was a Supreme Court nominee last year, but Blunt chose Patricia Breckenridge. And Fischer was a nominee last year to succeed Breckenridge on the appeals court, but Blunt instead chose Alok Ahuja.
Under the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, Blunt has 60 days to appoint one of the three to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, or the commission will make the choice.
The governor said Thursday evening, in a news release that he “will thoughtfully review” the commission's selections.
Earlier this week, Blunt's office announced it would require all three nominees to answer 50 questions - down from the 111 questions it posed a year ago, when former Chief Justice Ronnie White's departure created the court's last vacancy.
The questions include biographical information and the nominees' positions on court issues and the Nonpartisan Plan.
The questionnaire can be viewd on the Web at http://governor.mo.gov/SCQuestionnaire.pdf.
The nominees' answers also will be made available for public review.
Candidates will meet with the governor's general counsel and members of his senior staff before Blunt meets with each candidate.
Even before the Appellate Judicial Commission began its meeting at noon Thursday, the group “Better Courts for Missouri” told reporters in a telephone conference call the selection process is flawed.
“I think it was clear a year ago, when we were in this situation, that the judicial commission gave Gov. Blunt a panel from which he was disappointed,” said Thomas Walsh, a St. Louis lawyer and member of the group's board of directors.
“We're concerned that the commission ... will not give (Blunt) an appropriate panel of three potential jurists who would exercise judicial restraint and not legislate from the bench.”
But James Harris, a former Blunt staff member who currently heads the Better Courts group, acknowledged: “There's nothing in the Constitution that says the governor should get (candidates that fit) his or her ideology, but any governor should be proud of the judges that he or she is appointing.”
Harris said the group's members never have liked the secrecy surrounding the judicial commission's closed meetings, where applicants are considered and three nominees chosen.
The Constitution gives the force of law to the Supreme Court's rules on judicial commission operations. Those rules require the process to be closed.
After the panel was announced, Harris said Thursday evening: “We need to do some research on Judge Fischer.
“Yet again, it appears they've kind of forced the governor's hand by giving him two liberals (Hardwick and Holliger), or people who cannot subscribe to judicial restraint.
“They're liberal Democrats (who) have close ties” to the trial attorneys association that Harris' group says has gained an unfair control of the judicial nominating process.
As required by the state Constitution, the Appellate Judicial Commission on Thursday sent Gov. Matt Blunt three names to succeed former Chief Justice Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., the Cape Girardeau native who last month left Missouri's high court for a seat on the U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
Fischer is an Atchison County associate circuit judge - an elected post, for which he's run as a Republican.
Hardwick and Holliger both sit on the Kansas City-based Western District state appeals court.
Both were appointed to the appeals court bench by Democratic governors - Mel Carnahan for Holliger and Bob Holden for Hardwick - and later kept on the bench with citizens' retention votes.
Holliger also was a Supreme Court nominee last year, but Blunt chose Patricia Breckenridge. And Fischer was a nominee last year to succeed Breckenridge on the appeals court, but Blunt instead chose Alok Ahuja.
Under the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, Blunt has 60 days to appoint one of the three to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, or the commission will make the choice.
The governor said Thursday evening, in a news release that he “will thoughtfully review” the commission's selections.
Earlier this week, Blunt's office announced it would require all three nominees to answer 50 questions - down from the 111 questions it posed a year ago, when former Chief Justice Ronnie White's departure created the court's last vacancy.
The questions include biographical information and the nominees' positions on court issues and the Nonpartisan Plan.
The questionnaire can be viewd on the Web at http://governor.mo.gov/SCQuestionnaire.pdf.
The nominees' answers also will be made available for public review.
Candidates will meet with the governor's general counsel and members of his senior staff before Blunt meets with each candidate.
Even before the Appellate Judicial Commission began its meeting at noon Thursday, the group “Better Courts for Missouri” told reporters in a telephone conference call the selection process is flawed.
“I think it was clear a year ago, when we were in this situation, that the judicial commission gave Gov. Blunt a panel from which he was disappointed,” said Thomas Walsh, a St. Louis lawyer and member of the group's board of directors.
“We're concerned that the commission ... will not give (Blunt) an appropriate panel of three potential jurists who would exercise judicial restraint and not legislate from the bench.”
But James Harris, a former Blunt staff member who currently heads the Better Courts group, acknowledged: “There's nothing in the Constitution that says the governor should get (candidates that fit) his or her ideology, but any governor should be proud of the judges that he or she is appointing.”
Harris said the group's members never have liked the secrecy surrounding the judicial commission's closed meetings, where applicants are considered and three nominees chosen.
The Constitution gives the force of law to the Supreme Court's rules on judicial commission operations. Those rules require the process to be closed.
After the panel was announced, Harris said Thursday evening: “We need to do some research on Judge Fischer.
“Yet again, it appears they've kind of forced the governor's hand by giving him two liberals (Hardwick and Holliger), or people who cannot subscribe to judicial restraint.
“They're liberal Democrats (who) have close ties” to the trial attorneys association that Harris' group says has gained an unfair control of the judicial nominating process.
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