UPDATE: Judge selection plan gets initial OK from Missouri House

JEFFERSON CITY – A proposed constitutional amendment that would alter the way a state committee picks Missouri judges gained initial support in the state House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The proposal, authored by Rep. Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, would change the Missouri Plan, a non-partisan system created in 1940 that allows for the selection of judges for the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. Currently, to fill a judicial opening, a panel of seven people known as the Nonpartisan Judicial Commission – composed of the state Supreme Court chief justice, three lawyers selected by the Missouri Bar Association and three residents selected by the governor – submit a list of three candidates for the open seat. 

The governor then selects one.