When the 22nd Circuit Judicial Commission held elections last month to replace a lawyer representative, no candidate received a majority.
“That doesn't surprise me because people throw their hat in the ring for these commissions and it's like anything else where if you've got five or six candidates, none of them will get 50% of the vote the first try,” said Judge Dan Scott who retired from the bench in December 2020.
The Commission is made up of five individuals. Two are elected attorneys, two are lay people appointed by the governor and one is the head of the court. The 22nd Circuit Judicial Commission recommends a panel of judicial applicants for positions in the 22nd Circuit Court in the City of Louis to the Governor of Missouri who makes a final appointment to the judicial bench.
“I'm familiar with the process,” Scott told the St. Louis Record. “It’s done on a staggered basis with the lawyers electing lawyer representatives, which rotates. So, there's probably always a fairly new lawyer, one that's been there a while and one that’s been there for quite a while. The governor picks the laypeople, which is on a rotating basis, too. There's always someone new who is coming into the mix.”
The election was held to replace Bryan Sanger who, in addition to being an outgoing member of the Judicial Commission, is also a personal injury attorney and partner at Mandel, Marsh, Sudekum & Sanger law firm in St. Louis.
“It's a very time-consuming job to have personal interviews with all these people who are trying to become trial judges on your own time and then to come in and have meetings if it's in Kansas City or St. Louis,” Scott said. “There might be 15 to 20 applicants. So, you’ve got to be pretty public service-minded in order to take that position on for six years.”
The Commission’s merit-based, non-partisan process of selecting judges has become a national model adopted by other states. The way the commission fills vacancies is governed by the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, which was adopted by ballot initiative in the 1940s.
Because no lawyer candidate received a majority to replace Sanger, a run-off election will be held this month.
“I think it’s relatively rare but that wouldn't mean that it is not a good trend,” Scott added. “What it tells me is that there are enough lawyers who are willing to run for the spot and do the job.”