The Missouri Plan is a method for the selection of judges. It originated in Missouri in 1940 and has been adopted by many states of the United States. Similar methods are used in some other countries.
The Supreme Court of Missouri is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established in 1820 and is located at 207 West High Street in Jefferson City,Missouri. Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's constitution to give the Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction –the sole legal power to hear –over five types of cases on appeal. Pursuant to Article V,Section 3 of the Missouri Constitution,these cases involve:
Shirley Schlanger Abrahamson was the 25th chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. An American lawyer and jurist,she was appointed to the court in 1976 by Governor Patrick Lucey,becoming the first female justice to serve on Wisconsin's highest court. She became the court's first female chief justice on August 1,1996,and served in that capacity until April 29,2015. In all,she served on the court for 43 years (1976–2019),making her the longest-serving justice in the history of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Dana Anderson Fabe is an American lawyer,retired judge,and mediator. She served as a justice of the Alaska Supreme Court from 1996 to 2016,including three terms as the court's chief justice. She previously served as an Alaska trial court judge for nearly eight years,from 1988 to 1996. Fabe was the first woman appointed to the Alaska Supreme Court,as well as its first female chief justice.
Cornelia Anne Clark was an American attorney and jurist who served as a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 2005 until her death in 2021.
Susan Mary Kiefel is an Australian lawyer and barrister who was the 13th Chief Justice of Australia from 2017 to 2023. She concurrently served on the High Court of Australia from 2007 to 2023,previously being a judge of both the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Federal Court of Australia. Kiefel is the first woman to serve in the position of Chief Justice.
Debra Todd is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Prior to her election to the Supreme Court in 2007,she served as a judge on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania from 2000 through 2007. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Kim McLane Wardlaw is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1998. She is the first Hispanic American woman to be appointed to a federal appeals court. Wardlaw was considered as a possible candidate to be nominated by Barack Obama to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Patricia Ann Millett is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She formerly headed the Supreme Court practice at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer &Feld. Millett also was a longtime former assistant to the United States Solicitor General and served as an occasional blogger for SCOTUSblog. At the time of her confirmation to the D.C. Circuit,she had argued 32 cases before the United States Supreme Court. In February 2016 The New York Times identified her as a potential nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia.
Sara Rosalie Wahl was an American feminist,lawyer,public defender,clinical law professor,and judge and the first woman to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court where she served for seventeen years. Governor Perpich nominated Wahl to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1977 and Wahl won the election to the seat in a non-partisan election in 1978,defeating three male candidates. She chaired the state's Gender Bias Taskforce and Racial Bias Taskforce and led the American Bar Association's efforts to establish clinical legal education. She was a champion for the mentally ill and for displaced homemakers. She wrote 549 opinions including for the majority in holding that different penalties for crack and powder cocaine were unconstitutional in State v. Russell .
Penny J. White is an American attorney and former judge who served as a judge on Tennessee’s First Judicial Circuit,as a judge for the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals,and as a justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Former Justice White was the second woman to serve on the Tennessee Supreme Court. White was removed from office in a judicial retention election in 1996 as the only justice to lose a retention election in Tennessee under the Tennessee Plan. After her time in the judiciary,White served as a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law until her retirement in 2022.
Wilhelmina Marie Wright is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. She is the only jurist in Minnesota's history to be state district court judge,appellate court judge and state supreme court justice. She was formerly an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court,a judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals,and a judge of the Minnesota District Court,Second Judicial District.
Lidia S. Stiglich is an American attorney and jurist serving as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada since 2023. She was appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval on November 10,2016.
Adrienne Camille Nelson is an American lawyer who is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. She previously served as a judge on the Multnomah County Circuit Court from 2006 to 2018 and a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 2018 to 2023.
Carla Wong McMillian is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia and former judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Piper Dinita Griffin is an American lawyer who has served as an associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.
