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Blunt passes up judge WSJ called more qualified

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 17, 2008 - Judicial selection in Missouri is complicated by the sharp criticism that conservatives, including the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, direct at Missouri's Non-Partisan Court plan. Gov. Matt Blunt has joined this criticism, complaining that he has not had enough influence on the panels that choose a slate of three nominees for judgeships.

An August editorial in the Wall Street Journal criticized the three finalists sent the governor to replace Stephen Limbaugh, a conservative moving over to the federal bench. The three finalists included Associate Circuit Judge Zel Fischer, who he selected, and Kansas City Court of Appeals judges Lisa Hardwick and Ronald Hollinger. Only Fischer was a Republican.

The editorial argued that highly qualified conservatives, such as U.S. Attorney Stephen Easton and Brenda Talent, had been left off the list sent to Blunt.  The editorial continued: "Instead, the commission opted for a game of chicken with the Governor. 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."

In the Journal's view, "the game is rigged to favor Judge Hardwick, a favorite of Missouri Chief Justice (and commission member) Laura Denvir Stith."  The Journal complains that the Missouri Plan for choosing judges has pushed the state high court gradually to the left.

A year ago, when a panel of judges sent to Blunt had included African-American Nannette Baker, the Journal had complained that the more qualified Hardwick had been left off the list. But now, the Journal apparently considers her in league with the more liberal Chief Justice Stith.

Professor David Achtenberg, of the University of Missouri-Kansas City law school, analyzed 1,200 of Hardwick's opinions and concluded that the claims about her being liberal was false. He found that she was a "judicial centrist with no particular agenda." 

(This week Achtenberg praised the selection of Fischer, who graduated from UMKC after getting an undergraduate degree from William Jewell. Achtenberg said,  “There are advantages to having people on the court who have appellate judicial experience, but there are also advantages to having people who have substantial experience at the trial-court level and in dealing with the problems of clients.")

Blunt said in a press release that he picked Fischer partly because, among the three on the panel, Fischer was the closest to sharing the governor's judicial philosophy. 

After law school, Fischer clerked for Missouri Supreme Court Judge Andrew Jackson Higgins. Later he was a trial lawyer, serving for three years on the board of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys - not a favorite of the Blunt administration. He then took up a more general practice near his home south of Tarkio, in northwest Missouri, where he is a neighbor and friend of Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo. Fischer was elected an associate circuit judge less than two years ago. Here a nice story on this background.

Currently, there is no African-American on the state high court, a pointed noted in a St. Louis American editorial on the judicial selection controversy.