The Judicial Branch
The structure of the Missouri court system is reflective of a “typical” state court system, with a three-level
court system consisting of the trial courts, the intermediate appellate courts, and the court of last resort.
In Missouri, the lowest-level or trial court is called the “circuit court.” The state is divided into 45
geographic areas called “circuits,” and there is a court for each circuit. In some of the more populous
parts of the state, the circuit covers the same area as a county. In most parts of the state, however, a
circuit is made up of several counties.
Judges at the circuit court level are designated either “circuit judges” or “associate circuit
judges.” The former serve six-year terms and typically preside over major court cases. The latter have
four-year terms and usually hear cases involving less-serious crimes, divorces, wills and guardianships,
and small claims.
If a case is appealed from the circuit court level, it generally goes to the intermediate appellate
court, known as the “Court of Appeals.” There is an appeals court for each of the three regions of the
state: the eastern, western, and southern. Appeals court judges serve twelve-year terms.
The Missouri State Court System:
Supreme Court
Courts of
Appeals
(3)
Circuit Courts
(45)
Also serving twelve-year terms are the seven members of the state’s highest court, the “Supreme
Court,” that is based in Jefferson City. The Missouri Supreme Court is the final arbiter of state law.
(Matters involving federal law are resolved in the federal court system.)
Juries and witnesses are only involved at the circuit court level. It is in that trial court where the
judge or jury determines the facts surrounding the dispute being adjudicated. Those facts are not
appealed to the higher courts, but only points of law: whether the law was correctly applied, whether the
proper procedures were followed, etc. Proceedings at the Appeals Court and Supreme Court levels
consist solely of lawyers for the competing sides arguing points of law and responding to questions from
the judges.
Electing Judges
In most parts of the state, circuit and associate circuit judges campaign for office under a party label and
are elected or re-elected in the November general election. Almost 60% of all Missouri state judge
positions are filled this way. These partisan campaigns are often not quite as partisan as campaigns for
the state legislature or other higher offices. Judicial candidates must comply with certain professional
codes of conduct that apply to (and constrain) lawyers and judges. Supporters of these candidates,
however, can be as partisan and as vocal as they like.
The “Missouri Plan”
In the three major metropolitan areas of the state, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield, the circuit and
associate circuit judges aren’t chosen through partisan election, but through the method used also to select
all of the members of the Appeals courts and Supreme Court: The Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan.
Slightly over 40% of state judges are selected by this method.i The Missouri Plan is one instance where
the state was ahead of other states in policy leadership, as many other states have followed Missouri in
adopting this method of judicial selection.
Under Missouri’s version, when a vacancy occurs on one of the covered courts, a non-partisan
commission screens potential replacements and selects three names to forward to the governor. For
appeals court vacancies, the commission consists of seven members, and for circuit court vacancies, five.
In either case, the commission includes one sitting judge; half of the remaining members are lawyers
chosen by the bar association, and the other half are lay people appointed by the governor.
From the three people nominated by the commission, the governor appoints one who assumes
office with no further confirmation necessary.ii After the judge serves at least a year, the voters of the
jurisdiction are asked in the next general election, “Shall Judge
of
court be retained in
office?” If a majority vote “yes,” that judge receives a full term in office, and may stand for retention to
another term at the end of that time. If a majority votes not to retain the judge, that position becomes
vacant and the process begins again.
Changing from Partisan Election to Nonpartisan Selection:
Greene County
The Missouri Constitutioniii provides a procedure that voters can use to have judges in a circuit
selected under the Missouri Plan, instead of by partisan election. The issue will go before the
voters of a circuit if 10% of the number of people who voted for Governor in each county of
the circuit sign a petition asking for such a vote. The most recent time this was done was in
the 31st Circuit in southwest Missouri (Greene County), in November of 2008, when 52% of
those voting on the matter voted in favor of adopting the Missouri Plan. Prior to that vote, the
Missouri Plan was used for circuit courts only in the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan
areas.
Consequences of the Missouri Plan
The effect of the Missouri Plan is unclear. For one thing, a majority of state judges are still chosen by
partisan election. Secondly, the Missouri Plan certainly does not take “politics” out of the judicial
selection process. It simply replaces what would otherwise be a more-visible, partisan process with a
less-visible, non-partisan process that is nonetheless political. Political processes are used to select the
judges, lawyers, and lay members of the commissions, and politics shapes the governor’s selection of one
appointee from the list of three nominees.
Political scientists studying the Missouri Plan for the most part have concluded that it yielded
judges whose characteristics, background, and experience were very similar to that of judges selected by
other means. Whether court decisions are different under the Missouri Plan than they would be under
partisan election or straight gubernatorial appointment is difficult to measure. The Missouri Plan does,
however, free some judges from the necessity of raising political contributions and conducting
conventional campaigns, and thereby frees the voters from the accompanying campaign commercials and
election-season direct mail appeals.
i
According to the 2011-2012 Missouri Roster, pp. 68-82, 153 judges are chosen under the Missouri Plan,
and 221 are chosen by partisan election, a ratio of about 41% to 59%.
ii
If the Governor chooses not to appoint one of the three nominees, the nominating commission itself can
make the appointment. (Article V, Section 25 (a))
iii
Article V, Section 25(b).