Next Tuesday, the St. Louis Federalist Society — which is quite busy this month, apparently — will host a debate at the Missouri Athletic Club between two seeking change, and two seeking the same, when it comes Missouri’s longstanding system for selecting judges for the state’s higher courts, and in the urban areas.

The panelists are:

Bill Placke, an attorney and Senior Director for Business Development at Charter Communications.  He recently stepped down as the St. Louis Federalist Society’s president, to co-found Better Courts for Missouri, a group seeking the change the judicial selection process in the state.

Woody Cozad, former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, and founder of the Cozad Company. He practiced law with Stinson Morrison Hecker for more than 20 years. Cozad supports the current selection process.

Tom Walsh, who has 25 years experience as “an attorney, advising corporations, boards of directors, officers and shareholders of companies on a variety of complex matters,” as a release put it. Walsh works at Sonnenschein Nash & Rosenthal.  He supports changing the current judicial setup.

Randy J. Scherr, who in the late ’70s was named assistant director of Public Affairs for Mid-continent Farmers Association with primary lobbying responsibilities in Jefferson City and Washington.   In 1978 Scherr was appointed to the White House Conference on Exports.  Scherr supports the current judicial setup.

For more information about the opposing views on judicial selection, check out:

Justice at Stake, which champions the current Missouri Plan.

Better Courts for Missouri, which advocates change in the judicial selection system.

The $20-a-person lunch begins at 12:10 p.m. The debate begins at 12:30 p.m., and is open to the public.  Those seeking the lunch are to RSVP to stlfedsoc@gmail.com.