UPDATE: Last night Chief Justice Laura Denver Stith, Judge Russell and Judge Wolff were seen hobnobbing with members of the Appellate Judicial Commission at the Doubletree Hotel. Here at MOPNS, we assume that they were enjoying fillet and wine on the taxpayers dime. We suspect the liberal commission, learning nothing from last year’s tainted process, will submit a panel with two Democrats and some sheep like Judge Paul Spinden. Spinden is rumored to be the Trial Attorney’s pick because they can muscle him. True strong conservatives like Brenda Talent are said to have no chance. Stay tuned for breaking information when the panel is submitted.

As we told you yesterday, reliable sources are telling MOPNS that MATA, Justice Stith and Friends are once again conspiring to screw Missourians. This time they are preparing to force Matt Blunt to appoint ridiculously unqualified judges to the Supreme Court. As our readers are well aware, Judge Stephen Limbaugh, by far the best judge on the Supreme Court, recently created a vacancy when he moved to the federal system.

Our sources tell us that a number of extremely qualified lawyers have applied for Limbaugh’s vacancy, including Professor Stephen Easton, Brenda Talent and Judge Lisa White Hardwick. All three of these applicants boast outstanding credentials. (Easton, for instance, starred at Stanford law school and clerked on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals before becoming a highly regarded law professor).

One would think that because God’s Pla . . . errr, I mean, the Missouri Plan, is intended to reward merit, that these three would be nominated by the Appellate Judicial Commission to Governor Blunt. Right?

Not quite. Instead, the Commission — which is really an organ of MATA at this point — is preparing to nominate someone far less impressive, along the lines of Nannette Baker (a Democrat) or Paul Spinden (a Republican). MATA would like to think that nominating a Republican like Spinden, or an African American like Baker, would make it impossible for him to reject the panel of nominees. They might be right. But they should be ashamed, because a mediocre nominee today could be a mediocre Supreme Court judge tomorrow. Both Baker and Spinden are lackluster applicants in a field of legal stars, but this so-called “MERIT” plan will still put them ahead of scholars and far more accomplished attorneys.

Just one more piece of evidence that the Missouri Plan is a joke.

Related:

MOPNS (2/15/08) Limousine Liberals Call Black Legislators’ Bill “Strange”

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