New Missouri Plan The organization Better Courts for Missouri has filed an initiative petition to, in its view, "inject openness and accountability into Missouri’s judicial selection process."

Better Courts for Missouri claims a powerful club of trial lawyers continues to fight on behalf of the "good ol boy network" for a secretive judicial selection system in which they can appoint judges friendly to the interests of these attorneys.

The New Missouri Plan, which is being proposed, would change the composition of the Appellate Judicial Commission to three members of the Missouri Bar appointed by the Governor, four laypersons appointed by the Governor, and would increase the number of nominees submitted to the Governor by the Commission from three to five. In addition, the Governor would be allowed to reject the nominees, as was the case under the original Missouri Plan of 1940.

Download/Listen: Better Courts for Missouri News Conference (51:00 MP3)