An influential GOP lawmaker upset with the rulings of a Republican judge in Cole County filed a bill trying to force him into a primary — or out of the Missouri judiciary altogether.
The proposal from House Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins of Bowling Green targets Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker, who was elected by overwhelming margins in 2020.
It doesn’t directly fire Walker, which the legislature can’t do by law. But that could be the result because of the way judicial positions are created and funded by the General Assembly.
In an interview Thursday, Perkins said ending Walker’s time on the bench is the intent of his bill. He called Walker “Cotton Bader Ginsburg” and “Cotton Sotomayor,” references to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and current U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
“I just fundamentally disagree with Judge Walker on almost all of his positions,” Perkins said.
The bill, filed at the end of January, has yet to be assigned to a committee. If it becomes law, it would rearrange two of the four circuit judgeships in Cole County, making it possible for lawmakers to refuse to pay Walker’s salary beyond 2026.
Walker won his seat in 2020, defeating former Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Richardson with 72.5% of the vote in the Republican primary. Walker was unopposed in the general election.
Circuit judges are elected every six years and Walker would be on the ballot in 2026.
Prior to being elected circuit judge, Walker was elected associate circuit judge in 2018 and sat as Jefferson City municipal judge from 2011 to 2018.
Asked about the bill, Walker in an email pointed to the Code of Judicial Conduct, which he said requires judges to be “independent, fair and impartial” and to “maintain the dignity of judicial office and avoid both impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.”
He emphasizes those rules – and how important they are to preserving justice and the rule of law — when he provides training to new judges, Walker wrote.
“Cole County citizens know this about me and they know how seriously and earnestly I work as a public servant,” Walker wrote.
Since taking office at the beginning of 2021, Walker has made several decisions that have riled lawmakers or Republican Party leadership. They include:
- That the Highways and Transportation Commission has constitutional authority to set pay scales for the Department of Transportation without reference to legislative appropriations.
- That the Missouri Republican Party could not retroactively refuse the filing fee of Darrell McClanahan, an “honorary member” of the Ku Klux Klan, who was listed first on the primary ballot for governor.
- That a plaintiff who sought to kick the 2022 marijuana legalization amendment off the ballot had no standing to sue.
- That then-Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft had unfairly slanted a description of the abortion legalization amendment on the November ballot, posted online and at polling stations, ordering changes.
In each of the cases that went to higher courts on appeal, Walker’s ruling was upheld.
Legislation that would effectively remove a judge over disagreements with their decisions threatens the independence of the courts, said Dave Roland, director of litigation and co-founder of the libertarian Freedom Center of Missouri.
“The only question that should be asked here is whether Cole County needs this additional judicial seat,” Roland said. “If the seat is not needed, then certainly the legislature can act to withhold funding from the seat.”
Roland represented Darrell McClanahan when the GOP sued to remove him from the ballot for governor.
“Ideally, political considerations would not factor into this at all,” he said. “Because when politics gets involved, it calls into question the independence of the judiciary, which historically has been one of our constitutional system’s greatest strengths.”
The legislature can create judicial positions by a statute specifying the number of circuit judges in any of the 46 circuits. Lawmakers can also add a single judicial position by appropriation when the regular judicial workload reviews show at least two are needed in any particular circuit.
In the past seven budget cycles, the judiciary has reported that workload studies show between five and 12 circuits met the statutory requirement for a judgeship created by appropriation, but has declined to include them in the official budget request.
In that time, lawmakers have funded eight new judges, including one last year for Cole County, the 19th Circuit.
“The weighted workload studies have for many years showed our circuit as one of the most demanding on judicial officers,” Walker wrote in the email to The Independent. “Even before the avalanche of litigation about ‘Monsanto’ that brought over 25,000 cases to Cole County in just the last few years, the daily work of civil, family law, probate and criminal caseload PLUS the unique role in presiding over many cases involving the State of Missouri, proves the need for our current four circuit and two associate circuit divisions.”
The more than 25,000 lawsuits pending against Bayer allege medical problems caused by glyphosate, the chemical in the brand name herbicide Roundup. They were filed in Jefferson City because that is where the company’s official agent is located.
Three circuit judgeships for Cole County are created by statute. Then-Gov. Mike Parson appointed Christopher Limbaugh on Aug. 2 to the position created last year by appropriation. Limbaugh’s position will be on the ballot for the first time in 2026.
Walker holds the judicial slot created for the 19th Circuit by a bill passed in 2002. Perkins legislation would alter the statute to designate Limbaugh’s position as one created by statute, relegating Walker to the position created by appropriation.
The Constitution prohibits cuts to judicial salaries. Judges can be removed from office “for the commission of a crime, or for misconduct, habitual drunkenness, willful neglect of duty, corruption in office, incompetency or any offense involving moral turpitude, or oppression in office” upon recommendation of an investigative commission and majority vote of the Missouri Supreme Court.
That makes Perkins’ plan a long-term project. First, he must get the bill passed and signed by Gov. Mike Kehoe. Then, next year, he must persuade other lawmakers to refuse to fund the judicial position created by appropriation beyond the expiration of the six-year term.
“That sounds about right,” Perkins said, when asked about the scenario. “Absolutely, that’d be my intent.”
Because candidates for office must file before lawmakers complete the state budget, passage of Perkins’ bill this year means Walker’s only path to be a candidate for a seat that would be sure to exist in 2027 would be to file for Limbaugh’s position.
In that case, Perkins said, the voters would give the verdict on Walker.
“His politics aren’t well in line with the voters of Cole County,” Perkins said. “When the voters of Cole County see his voting record, they’ll tend to agree with me, and they might just take care of it.”
And if he doesn’t get the bill passed, Walker may face a primary anyway, Perkins said.
“This Cole County Circuit is so important because what goes statewide oftentimes comes through Cole County,” he said.
As the seat of state government, challenges to the constitutionality of state laws and the actions of executive agencies are filed in Cole County.
Chuck Hatfield, an attorney who has argued cases for years in Cole County, said judges in the state capital have a long tradition of angering lawmakers by ruling they or state agencies have overstepped their authority.
“Byron Kinder was never afraid to do it when he, for example, found that the school foundation formula was unconstitutional as passed by the legislature,” Hatfield said.
There are rules that allow a litigant to seek a change of judge, for any reason, early in a case and for cause later, if desired, Hatfield noted.
“I would hate to see the legislature insist that our judges begin to consider how the legislature is going to feel about them,” Hatfield said. “That’s not the right way to run a democracy.”
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.
