Wall Street Journal editorial pans Plan: Paper says Blunt should

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, Aug 26, 2008 by Kelly Wiese

The Wall Street Journal is again closely tracking developments with judicial selection in Missouri.

The Appellate Judicial Commission late Thursday announced the three finalists recommended to Gov. Matt Blunt to fill the vacancy created by the departure of Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr.

The commission nominated Western District Court of Appeals Judges Lisa Hardwick and Ron Holliger, who were appointed by Democrats, along with Atchison County Associate Circuit Judge Zel Fischer, an elected Republican.

Blunt, a Republican, has 60 days from receiving the names to make his selection. If he does not, the commission would choose.

The Journal said in an editorial Saturday that the commission was basically setting Blunt up and should have given him a better option. It preferred candidates such as private St. Louis lawyer Brenda Talent, wife of former U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, or Stephen Easton, a University of Missouri law professor and former federal prosecutor in North Dakota.

With the choices given, the newspaper editorial said, the commission orchestrated it so its preferred candidate, Hardwick, gets the nod. Fischer, the paper said, is the least qualified among the candidates.

"By nominating Zel Fischer as the conservative option, it dares Mr. Blunt to either select the less-qualified conservative judge, elevate Ms. Hardwick, or send the whole slate back, which means the commission then gets to make the pick," the newspaper said.

The Appellate Judicial Commission had no direct response to the editorial, spokeswoman Beth Riggert said.

"The members of the commission chose three individuals whom they believed would be well-qualified to serve as judges of the Supreme Court," she said.

The Wall Street Journal called on Blunt, who is not seeking re- election, to take a stand by refusing to pick any of the finalists this time around and force a debate on the issue.

Representatives of groups both supporting and opposing Missouri's process for choosing judges through a selection panel did not return calls seeking comment by press time.

The newspaper labeled Hardwick as "undesirable" and "left- leaning." However, in August 2007, after another panel of finalists was announced, the journal decried those options as well but offered a different impression of Hardwick.

One of the finalists last year was Eastern District Appeals Court Judge Nannette Baker. The journal then said that the commission could have chosen among "other, more impressive black candidates, including Appellate Judge Lisa Hardwick, who had apparently not been deferential enough to the [state] bar association."

As a sidenote, the Wall Street Journal is not the only major newspaper wading into judicial selection these days. A day after the latest journal editorial ran, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial embracing a proposal from the American Bar Association. The ABA has called for using bipartisan judicial selection panels of lawyers and community leaders to make recommendations to send the president for federal court appointments.

"Adoption of the ABA proposal would improve the quality of the federal judiciary without infringing on the constitutional prerogatives of the president or the Senate," the Times wrote.