Missouri Plan Law - Research Paper Example

? Missouri Plan 21-11-11 Missouri Plan The research paper is based on the Missouri Plan for selecting judges. It analyses and provides the Plan’s history, set up, advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the paper also provides an in depth analysis on various aspects related to America’s merit selection plan. Introduction: In the United States of America, judges are selected through employing one of the three available categories which are: elections, democratic appointment and the Missouri Plan. However, a few of the fifty American States employ hybrid methods of selection for the appointment of Supreme Court judges. The selection methods have different popularities among the different states. For instance, the democratic appointment method of selection is followed by the US constitution and therefore, the nominations for federal judges are put forward by the President and are confirmed by the US Senate. The Missouri Plan for the selection of judges was adopted by Missouri in 1940 and is also known as the merit plan or Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan. (Peltason, J. W.1945). History and Spread of the Plan: The State of Missouri adopted the commission based on a unique role for the Bar in 1940 and since Missouri was the first State to adopt the commission method, it became known as the Missouri Plan. The origin of Missouri Plan can be traced back to one of the founders of the American Judicature Society, Mr. Albert M. Kales and therefore is also known as Kales plan. In simple terms, the Missouri Plan is based on a nonpartisan commission employed for the investigation and selection of judicial judges from a list of nominees and then provides the general public with the opportunity of removing the judges from the bench. Several other States use different variations of the Missouri Plan for the selection of Supreme Court judges. Moreover, a majority of the States employ hybrids of merit plan and Democratic appointment such as the combination of unique role for the Bar and federal judge nominees being confirmed by the US Senate. Today, the most common method of selection is the elections and the second most popular method is the merit plan. (Watson, R. A., & Downing, R. G.1969). The Plan: The judiciary has a number of Progressive Era reforms, one of which is the Merit Plan which is more commonly known as the Missouri Plan. The major aim of Missouri Plan is to free the political process from the government decision making and to let the experts perform the process of judicial selection. The experts are the lawyers who are entrusted with the job of selecting judges and bar association act as primary advocates. Therefore, the Plan attempts to shift power of selection to the Bar. (Kansas.1956). The Missouri Plan is based on two features which are as follows: i. The nominating commission submits a list of nominees from which the judges are appointed to the bench by the governor. ii. Once the judges have been appointed, at some point it becomes mandatory for them to come forward and face the public, which can then decide to remove the judges from their post through voting in an uncontested referendum. Therefore, it provides an opportunity to the general public to implement their opinion regarding the removal of appointed judges by saying yes or no. Thus, it limits the dependence of the Plan on the State and provides the general public an opportunity to implement their desires and provides them with a greater degree of independence from the government. (Watson, R. A., & Downing, R. G.1969). Advantages: i. The foremost advantage is that the selection and confirmation process is performed by experts i.e. the lawyers and the commission. The commission is well adapted for the process of assessing the qualifications of the judges as they know the law and are well informed with the preferences of the general public. I strongly believe that the method of Missouri Plan selects more qualified judges than the democratic appointment as the Plan eliminates political cronyism. Therefore, the nominating commission does not get the opportunity to nominate their friends as potential candidates for the Bench. ii. The nonpartisan commission’s prescreening ensures that only highly qualified judges are nominated. iii. The uncontested retention referendum eliminates the need of campaign. iv. The Missouri Plan provides its appointed judges with a high degree of independence from the various political branches as well as from the general public. (Hyde et al 1962). Disadvantages: i. The judges are selected in accordance with the preferences of the Lawyers of nominating committee therefore the judges might not be the preferences of the general public, which is the reason why some individuals assert that bar members, should not be entrusted with the selection of important judicial officials. ii. Judges selected through the merit plan are more liberal than those selected through democratic appointment or through electorates. iii. Judges appointed through the Kales plan are accountable to a lesser degree to democratic forces than the judges appointed through other methods because they are not selected through elections and they are quite difficult to remove from the bench through uncontested referendum. iv. The plan does not fully eliminate the prospect of politics interfering with the judicial selection procedure. (Puro et al 1985). Conclusion: Apart from the aspect of allowing the experts to select the judges, the Plan has no prominent benefits over the other selection methods. For instance, the Plan does not fully eliminate the chances of cronyism affecting the selection process. Cronyism is eliminated to a substantial degree in the selection of judges through democratic appointment. Moreover, the merit plan selection process is heavily influenced by politics which reduces the efficiency of the nominating commission. On the other hand, the public say in the retention of judges is somewhat controversial because a number of officials believe that the public has no idea of the issues of a judicial election and therefore should not be allowed to have a say in judicial matters. (Watson, R. A., & Downing, R. G.1969). Keeping this in view, I feel that the merit plan should not be preferred over the elections or the democratic appointment and it is not a plan that should be followed by other States. References: Peltason, J. W. (1945). The Missouri plan for the selection of judges. Columbia: University of Missouri. Kansas. (1956). Selection of judges: The selection of district and supreme court judges in Kansas, and consideration of other methods of selection, with particular reference to the "Missouri plan". Topeka, Kan.: The Council. Watson, R. A., & Downing, R. G. (1969). The politics of the bench and the bar: Judicial selection under the Missouri nonpartisan court plan. New York: Wiley. Hyde, L. M., & American Judicature Society to Promote the Efficient Administration of Justice. (1962). Nominate, appoint, elect: the Missouri plan for judicial selection. Chicago: American Judicature Society. Puro, M., Bergerson, P. J., & Puro, S. (January 01, 1985). An analysis of judicial diffusion: Adoption of the Missouri plan in the American states. Publius, 15, 4.). Read More