Book contents
- Judicial Selection in the States
- Judicial Selection in the States
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Table of Cases
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Change as an Exercise in Partisan Politics
- Part II Change as Court Modernization or Good Government
- 6 Georgia
- 7 Mississippi
- 8 Utah
- 9 New Mexico
- 10 Connecticut, Rhode Island, and South Carolina
- Part III Unsuccessful Change Efforts
- Index
8 - Utah
The Two-Step1
from Part II - Change as Court Modernization or Good Government
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2020
- Judicial Selection in the States
- Judicial Selection in the States
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Table of Cases
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Change as an Exercise in Partisan Politics
- Part II Change as Court Modernization or Good Government
- 6 Georgia
- 7 Mississippi
- 8 Utah
- 9 New Mexico
- 10 Connecticut, Rhode Island, and South Carolina
- Part III Unsuccessful Change Efforts
- Index
Summary
Utah was the last state where the voters approved the adoption of a Missouri Plan system. That happened in 1985, but the antecedents of that change can be traced to the mid-1940s when Utah voters approved a constitutional amendment empowering the legislature to decide how state judges should be selected and retained with the specification that partisan politics could not be an element of the process. In 1967, the legislature adopted many elements of the Missouri Plan by requiring the governor to fill vacancies, either interim or at the end of a term of an incumbent who did not run for reelection, from a list of candidates forwarded by a nominating commission. Incumbents faced either a nonpartisan election if an opponent filed to run or a retention election if there was no opponent. In 1985, as part of a larger process of constitutional revision, the voters approved a new judicial article that removed the legislature’s power to determine the means of judicial selection/retention and installed a modified Missouri Plan system.
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- Judicial Selection in the StatesPolitics and the Struggle for Reform, pp. 165 - 183Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020