Patricia Breckenridge was sworn in this past week as Missouri’s newest supreme court justice. It was a pleasant event, even a bit ho-hum, considering it culminated months of bitter disagreement over the method of choosing state court judges under a system known as the Missouri Plan.

No one questions Mrs. Breckenridge’s qualifications. She has been serving as an appellate court justice for the last 17 years and sat at a lower perch for nine years before that. It’s the process by which she found herself on the state’s supreme court that is at issue.

Breckenridge was appointed by Governor Matt Blunt. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. The governor chose Breckenridge from a list of three judges chosen by the state’s Appellate Judicial Commission. He is required to pick one of the three — or instead, to have this powerful commission do the picking for him.

You see, as I wrote in August, the commission handed the governor three nominees, all unacceptable to him. He wanted non-activist, conservative judges.

Conservatives urged Governor Blunt to fight the commission, but the governor eventually caved. He nominated Breckenridge from the commission’s menu, tepidly stating that he would “accept Judge Breckenridge’s statement that she will not seek to legislate from the bench.”

So, just who makes up the Appellate Judicial Commission? How are they chosen?

Good questions. The commission is made up of three members elected by the Missouri Bar Association and three members selected by the governor — each serving six-year terms. The seventh member? The sitting chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court.

Is it a good idea to have our most powerful judges determined largely by a private organization? Shouldn’t we at least alternate the private group doing the choosing? One year it could be the state bar, another year Wal-Mart stockholders in the state, another year the Rolla Bowling League. In leap years, a statewide group of local bar owners might do the selecting.

And why have the governor appoint people to a commission which appoints people for the governor to appoint? A tad circuitous, no? And why have someone on the current court deciding who sits on the future court?

You can see what this seems like: an insider game, a stacked deck.

How to reform? By what process can we acquire justice, that is, justices in sympathy with the people, respectful of the law, and independent of the other political branches of government, as well as any special interest?

Start with principles, and go from there.

First, let the voters into the process. Elect the Appellate Judicial Commission in Missouri. And, of course, elect similar commissions in others states. That would end domination of the judicial selection process by the state’s Bar Association, or any private interest group. Continued...