This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 1, 2011 - The commission charged with interviewing candidates for the vacant spot on the Missouri Supreme Court has settled on three finalists: Michael W. Manners, George W. Draper III and Joe D. Jacobson. Draper and Jacobson are from the St. Louis area.
Draper is an appeals court judge, while Jacobson is a prominent lawyer in private practice. Manners is a circuit judge in Kansas City.
(Click here to read the full announcement about the finalists.)
Gov. Jay Nixon will choose one of them for the post, which had been held by St. Louisan Michael Wolff.
Wolff has retired and returned to a teaching post at St. Louis University, where he had served before then-Gov. Mel Carnahan named Wolff to the high court in 1998.
Later Thursday, the group called Better Courts for Missouri -- which wants to revamp the current judicial selection process -- highlighted Manners' ties as a former president of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys.
Better Courts' executive director, James Harris, even asserted that the finalists represent "a rigged panel."
"Today's Supreme Court panel proves that being a former President of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys pays off," said Better Courts' executive director, James Harris. "MATA nominated one of their own, Judge Michael Manners, to the three person panel of nominees to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Michael Wolff."
He continued, "It is no secret that MATA has controlled the Appellate Judicial Commission for years..."
Harris singled out various members of the selection commission who have current or previous ties to the trial attorneys group.
Harris has been an outspoken advocate of changing the state's judicial-selection process. His alternatives have included proposals that the governor's selections be required to receive approval of the state Senate, or that the public elect judges on the higher courts. Most rural judges already are elected by local voters. Those in suburban and urban areas are generally chosen by the governor from three-person panels chosen by special judicial-selection commissions.
