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Missouri Supreme Court elections, 2022
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The terms of two Missouri Supreme Court justices expired on December 31, 2022. The two seats were up for retention election on November 8, 2022.
Missouri was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and results
Ransom's seat
Missouri Supreme Court, Robin Ransom's seat
Robin Ransom was retained to the Missouri Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 70.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
70.3
|
1,239,950 | ||
No |
29.7
|
525,084 | |||
Total Votes |
1,765,034 | ||||
|
|
Fischer's seat
Missouri Supreme Court, Zel Fischer's seat
Zel Fischer was retained to the Missouri Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 68.0% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
68.0
|
1,211,424 | ||
No |
32.0
|
569,032 | |||
Total Votes |
1,780,456 | ||||
|
|
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Missouri
About the Missouri Supreme Court
- See also: Missouri Supreme Court
The Missouri Supreme Court is composed of seven judges who are appointed by the governor and then must stand for retention by voters thereafter. A full term on the court is 12 years. Retention elections take place during Missouri's general elections, which are held every two years in even-numbered years.
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election. Judges on the Missouri Supreme Court are appointed to their seats.
| ■ Patricia Breckenridge | Appointed by Gov. Matt Blunt (R) in 2007 | |
| ■ George Draper | Appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon (D) in 2011 | |
| ■ Zel Fischer | Appointed by Gov. Matt Blunt (R) in 2008 | |
| ■ Wesley Brent Powell | Appointed by Gov. Eric Greitens (R) in 2017 | |
| ■ Mary Rhodes Russell | Appointed by Gov. Bob Holden (D) in 2004 | |
| ■ Robin Ransom | Appointed by Gov. Mike Parson (R) in 2021 | |
| ■ Paul C. Wilson | Appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon (D) in 2012 |
Selection
- See also: Judicial selection in Missouri
The judges of the Missouri Supreme Court are selected according to the Missouri Plan. When a vacancy occurs, a list of potential candidates is compiled by the Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission and narrowed to three choices. From those three candidates, the governor appoints a new judge.[1]
Newly appointed judges stand for retention in the next general election occurring one to three years after they take office. If retained, they serve 12-year terms.[1]
Selection of the chief justice or judge
The chief justice of the supreme court serves a two-year term and is elected by peer vote. By tradition, the court elects the most senior judge who has not yet served as chief justice.[1]
Qualifications
To serve on the Missouri Supreme Court, a judge must be:
- a U.S. citizen for at least 15 years;
- a qualified state voter for at least nine years;
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- over the age of 30; and
- under the age of 70 (retirement at 70 is mandatory).[1]
If a judge wishes to continue serving past the age of 70 and has not already occupied the bench for 12 years, he may petition the commission on retirement, removal and discipline to serve until the age 76.[2]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 7
- Number of cases: 58
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 62.1%% (36)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Russell (10)
- Per curiam decisions: 7
- Concurring opinions: 4
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justices Breckenridge, Fischer, Powell, and Wilson (1)
- Dissenting opinions: 20
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Powell (8)
For the study's full set of findings in Missouri, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[3]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[4]
Missouri had a Court Balance Score of 1.14, indicating Split control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Missouri," accessed February 8, 2017
- ↑ Missouri Constitution
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Missouri, Western District of Missouri • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Missouri, Western District of Missouri
State courts:
Missouri Supreme Court • Missouri Court of Appeals • Missouri Circuit Courts • Missouri Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Missouri • Missouri judicial elections • Judicial selection in Missouri
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