Our Unchecked Judiciary
Our Founding Fathers were geniuses.
Their vision was a government characterized by the separation of powers.
Each branch was to be given checks and balances against the others.
The Legislature checks the Judiciary and the Executive through impeachment.
The Judiciary checks the Executive and the Legislature by declaring their actions unconstitutional.
The Executive checks the Legislature by vetoing legislation.
He’s supposed to check the Judiciary by nominating judges.
In Missouri, that’s where it all breaks down.
Instead of the people or their Executive nominating Judges, the Missouri Plan gives legal elites the power to choose their own judges.
The Missouri Plan requires that the Governor nominate judges who have been selected by an Appellate Judicial Commission.
The design of the commission means that the Left-wing Bar Association and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court always have a majority.
That means there’s no way for the Governor to check the judiciary.
When the judiciary is unchecked, they run wild.
Unelected and unaccountable judges have no problem overstepping their authority and introducing their own elite partisan politics into their decisions.
There may have been a time when the Appellate Judicial Commission had a purpose.
There may have been a time when the Appellate Judicial Commission could be trusted to produce nonpartisan nominees.
That time is over.
For Missouri to rebuild trust in its Judiciary, the nomination power must be returned either to the Governor or to the people.
Andy Bakker
Executive Director
Liberty Alliance USA