A small group of individuals, hiding behind the name, Better Courts for Missouri, claim to be a “coalition of Missourians from all walks of life.” As with the Adam Smith Foundation, there is no evidence of members of this so-called coalition or who is affiliated with the organization. Anyone can put up a website and claim to be a “coalition,” but to be credible, the names of the individuals and organizations standing behind it should be released. If the individuals promoting this so-called coalition really want what’s best for Missouri’s courts, then why the shroud of secrecy?
If these politicians and special interests are so certain they want to destroy our courts, then they should organize in the daylight and embrace the very principles they claim to want in our courts: openness, accountability, independence and excellence.
The only thing that’s transparent about this so-called coalition, and others like it, is their plan to destroy Missouri’s courts. Missourians deserve fair and impartial courts, not shell groups playing shell games with our justice system.
Unlike this phony shell of a group, Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts, represents a broad-based coalition of organizations and individuals devoted to protecting Missouri courts from attacks by politicians and special interest groups and preserving the Missouri nonpartisan court plan.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Bill Placke // Jan 30, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Instead of addressing the substance that the reform efforts are aimed at removing the plaintiffs lawyers like Chip Robertson from the selection process and putting citizens in charge, Mr. Robertson uses the old plaintiffs lawyer trick of not arguing with the message but attacking the messenger. So answer two question Mr. Robertson: 1. Why should the selection of judges be exempted from the Sunshine Law unlike any other commission in the State; and, 2. Why should lawyers be choosing the judges before whom they try their cases. This is bad government, long overdue for change.
2 Bill Placke // Jan 30, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Additionally, will Mr. Robertson answer the question whether or not he also violated Missouri Supreme Court Rule 10 which states that persons outside of the judicial selection commission will not receive information about candidates for the Missouri Supreme Court. Mr. Robertson and most lawyers knew every applicant for this summer’s Missouri Supreme Court because that list was distributed to “insiders” by the Commisison. Did you recieve the list of applicants in violation of the Court Rules and did you report the person who violated court rules? Chief Justice Stith who chairs the commission stated under oath in the Shields Hearing that she violated the Rule and distributed the list of applicants to those not on the Commission. Is it that the rules of secrecy only apply to the commoners but not to those on the “inside”? This system is broken. If you are truly interested in good government instead of preservation of power by the insiders then let’s get together and fix it instead of resorting to a harmful fight.
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