Springfield and the Courts, a Love Story

The Springfield News-Leader ran an op-ed about our recently published study of the "Missouri Plan" for judicial selection. The piece was written by the study’s authors, professors Joshua Hall and Russell Sobel. (Thanks again to Combest for the link on Saturday.)

The Show-Me Institute study of judicial selection is topical in Springfield for several reasons.  First — and this is really more of a statewide issue — there is another vacancy on the Missouri Supreme Court, so our system shall again be put into action and to the test. Also, some community leaders in Springfield are beginning a process to consider whether Greene County should join the five other local circuits in the state that use the non-partisan court plan at the local level. While the study itself focused on the Supreme Court, I believe its findings — that our current system of judicial selection is good for our economy — apply just as well to the local courts. And, clearly, from what television tells me, the legal community in Springfield could use some improvement.