Some 86 years ago, Missouri voters enshrined a system for selecting top judges that would remove political influence from the courts.
asserted
that → enshrine → courts
And almost immediately, it came under attack.
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it → come → attack
Under what has come to be known as the Missouri Plan, lawyers help choose a slate of three candidates from which the governor must make an appointment for the state Supreme Court, appeals courts and, in some populous areas, the circuit courts.
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governor → come → areas
In the first years after adoption, it faced pushback from party bosses who had historically used judicial seats for political patronage.
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who → face → patronage
They said it gave too much power to the lawyers.
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it → say → lawyers
Voters, though, decisively defeated a repeal measure in 1942.
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Voters → defeat → 1942
More recently, the conservative activist Leonard Leo, who viewed Missouri as a crucial battleground, tried in 2007 to persuade Republican Gov. Matt Blunt to reject a slate of Supreme Court candidates — part of a broader effort to weaken a judicial selection system that had become a model for some two dozen states around the country.
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that → view → country
Blunt resisted and picked one of the three judges from the approved slate.
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Blunt → resist → slate
Then, in 2012, GOP lawmakers put a proposed overhaul before voters that, if approved, would have given the governor more control.
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that → put → control
Voters, by a 3-to-1 margin, turned back the plan.
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Voters → turn → plan
Now the attacks are back, driven by a new grievance.
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attacks → drive → grievance
At President Donald Trump’s behest, Republican lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional map in a mid-decade gerrymander.
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lawmakers → redrew → gerrymander
The goal: to give the GOP a shot at winning seven of Missouri’s congressional seats, instead of the six it now holds.
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it → give → seats
But voters gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on the map and put it on hold.
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voters → gather → hold
While Secretary of State Denny Hoskins tried to keep the referendum off the ballot, the Missouri Supreme Court overruled him.
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Court → try → him
It ordered the old map restored until voters decide on the new one.
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voters → order → one
Hoskins, citing a federal court ruling that contradicted the state’s highest court, directed officials to use the new map anyway, prompting Chief Justice Brent Powell to demand that Hoskins appear in court to show why he shouldn’t be held in contempt.
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he → cite → contempt
Fourteen Republican lawmakers responded by threatening to impeach “responsible members of this Court” for “willful neglect of duty, incompetency and misconduct” if the justices held Hoskins in contempt; the court did so anyway.
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court → respond → contempt
Hoskins backed down and instructed local election officials to distribute ballots using the old map; the justices decided not to have him arrested.
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him → back → map
The drama played out as Republicans in Missouri and elected officials nationwide have sought to weaken institutions that limit their power.
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that → play → power
In North Carolina, the Republican-dominated General Assembly stripped authority from Democratic governors.
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Assembly → dominate → governors
In Wisconsin, Republicans threatened to impeach a newly elected Supreme Court justice to protect gerrymandered maps.
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Republicans → threaten → maps
And in New York, Democrats bypassed an independent commission to pass a gerrymander that favored them, but the state’s highest court struck it down.
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court → bypass → it
Rather than electing top judges, as Illinois does, or giving the governor primary responsibility for choosing them, like California, Missouri selects its appellate and Supreme Court judges through a commission made up of three lawyers, one elected by lawyers in each appellate district; three non-lawyers appointed by the governor, one from each district; and a state Supreme Court judge selected by the court.
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Missouri → elect → court
After they are appointed, judges face a retention vote at the first general election after completing one year in office, then every 12 years, with voters deciding whether they keep their positions.
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they → appoint → positions
In response to the controversy, a number of Missouri Republicans have attacked the system.
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number → attack → system
U.S. Rep. Jason Smith called for the state to switch to electing its Supreme Court judges.
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state → call → judges
Republican Party executive director Miles Ross declared on X, “The Missouri Plan is done.”
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Plan → declare → X
Dan Seitz, chief of staff to Sen. Brad Hudson, called for replacing it with a system in which the governor could nominate judges directly, subject to Senate confirmation.
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governor → call → confirmation
State Rep. Cathy Jo Loy, a Carthage Republican who has introduced legislation in each of the past two sessions to replace the Missouri Plan with gubernatorial appointment and Senate confirmation, said she intends to file a new proposal Dec. 1, the first day lawmakers can file bills for next year’s session.
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lawmakers → introduce → session
Loy said her opposition to the system predates the recent clashes with the Supreme Court.
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opposition → say → Court
But she acknowledged that those defeats could give the proposal new momentum.
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defeats → acknowledge → momentum
“There will probably be more appetite because there are several senators that feel the same way,” she said.
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she → be → ?
Republicans, who hold every statewide elected office, supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature and six of the state’s eight congressional seats, seem to have suddenly found the limits of their power.
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who → hold → power
At the ballot box, voters have overwhelmingly rejected major pieces of the party’s agenda, including an effort to weaken their power to bypass the legislature by amending the constitution or putting laws passed by lawmakers to a statewide vote.
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voters → reject → vote
Time and again, when elected officials have sought to limit voters’ use of the ballot initiative, the courts have protected voters’ use of direct democracy.
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courts → elect → democracy
Courts repeatedly rewrote ballot summaries prepared by Republican state officials that they found unfair or misleading, including language describing the initiative that ultimately established abortion rights in 2024.
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that → rewrite → 2024
By the end of that year, after the Missouri Supreme Court rejected a last-minute effort by Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists to keep the abortion measure off the ballot, Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin was calling to repeal the Missouri Plan.
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O’Laughlin → reject → Plan
She proposed replacing the system for selecting Supreme Court and appellate judges with a nonpartisan election.
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She → propose → election
But her bill stalled in committee.
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bill → stall → committee
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
