Court hopefuls answer Blunt’s questions
Gov. Matt Blunt’s office has just posted the answers to the 50 questions he asked of the three finalists for the Missouri Supreme Court.
The lengthy documents contain some interesting trivia, such as Judge Zel Fischer’s grade point average at William Jewell College (3.506) and his musical background — playing guitar and doing vocals for the Law and Order Gospel Band from 1995 to 2002.
There are also some surprises, such as the fact that in her younger days, Democrat Lisa White Hardwick worked for two Republicans. She interned for then-Gov. Kit Bond in 1981 and was an assistant in Washington for then-Congressman Wendell Bailey in 1982.
Asked about membership in any groups that discriminate, Hardwick mentions that as a child, she was a girl scout, an organization that is limited to girls. Judge Ron Holliger says he was a member of the Elks but quit when the group refused to change its policy of barring women.
And naturally, there are more legal decisions and briefs than can be digested quickly. Holliger, for instance, submitted as his best writing sample his emergency decision permitting the “orderly opening of a school.”
If Blunt was looking for someone to criticize the nonpartisan court plan, he apparently didn’t get it.
In answer to a question about the judicial selection system, Fischer says it is “a preferred manner” to partisan elections and Hardwick calls it “a model for a majority of the states.” Holliger’s answer is in an appendix that isn’t posted online.
Fischer is an associate circuit judge in Atchison County while Hardwick and Holliger are judges on the Court of Appeals in Kansas City. They were nominated by the Appellate Judicial Commission.
Really interesting to see this - the process behind such selections are usually not made public, so this is quite intriguing. Gov. Blunt has done a really great job with transparency in government, and this is another example of that. Now we wait and see who is picked!
I’m personally not a very big fan of this process and I think we need to change it — How much sense does it make to have a liberal commission recommend 3 liberal judges to a conservative governor who is forced to pick 1 of 3 liberals?
Not much at all.
I wish Gov. Blunt could appoint common-sense, conservative judges in line with his philosophy and in line with Missouri’s preferences.
Someone is not doing their homework. Good Grief! Zel Fischer is not a liberal, nor is Hardwick. Holliger is proudly liberal, which is refreshing.
Steve someone’s not doing their homework. Hardwick is liberal, the fact that she worked for a couple of Republicans doesn’t make her conservative. After all Hulshoff worked for Jay Nixon does that make Kenny a liberal Democrat?
The real problem here is the only conservative hasn’t been a Judge long enough to sit on any cases with merit. Fischer hears traffic cases, small claims contract disputes, and maybe a few dissolutions. The first stop for his decisions is the Circuit Court. He seems like a qualified guy but his philosophy is not really known.
I guess the Governor took out the question about having every worked for a company that employed illegal aliens after that bit him in the butt last time when all of the Judges gave their current employer as the offender.