The Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan: A dinosaur on the edge of extinction or a survivor in a changing socio-legal environment

This article reviews the evolution of the Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan ("The Plan") and the effect of recent socio-legal change upon the selection and retention of state judges who interpret and implement the law. This article reviews the impact on the Plan and the judiciary of increased public cynicism toward our political and legal institutions. It examines and comments on the results of a judicial voter attitudes survey conducted in Missouri during and after the 1992 general election. The purpose of this article is not to promote or criticize the Missouri Plan or other methods of judicial selection, but concerns itself with the challenges to the Plan and possible responses to these challenges. It analyzes recent attacks in Missouri on the merit selection system by African-American groups and the state legislature. The article conducts a detailed review of bills introduced in the Missouri legislature that are designed to reconstitute the judicial commissions, modify the Plan, or eliminate the Plan. It also studies Voting Rights Act lawsuits brought by minorities and considers the application of the Voting Rights Act to judicial selection and retention under the Missouri Plan.;This article further examines the challenges to the Plan and explores why some challenges have the potential for success. It analyzes possible responses by supporters of the Plan to these challenges and considers alternatives to the Plan that could satisfy the concerns of its opponents.