Gov. Eric Greitens said Thursday he plans to interview the three nominees for a vacancy on the state Supreme Court.
Under the state's Nonpartisan Court Plan, Greitens has until the end of April to fill that vacancy, created by Judge Richard Teitelman's death last November, after receiving the nominations Wednesday night.
After taking about 10 hours to interview 30 applicants, then spending more than three hours of deliberations, the seven-member Appellate Judicial Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to nominate Lisa White Hardwick, Benjamin A. Lipman and W. Brent Powell for the governor's consideration.
Greitens told reporters and editors attending Thursday's Missouri Press Association/Associated Press "Day at the Capitol" that he and his staff will "sit down with our team (who) are doing the initial research on the backgrounds of all three of these individuals.
"And then I will be personally interviewing all three of the candidates, asking them about their judicial philosophy, so that we can pick a Supreme Court justice who, we believe, will follow the Constitution and best serve the interests of the people of Missouri," he said.
Voters added the Nonpartisan Court Plan to the state Constitution in 1940, and have modified it several times in the intervening 76 years - but so far have rejected efforts to change it significantly.
Under the plan, lawyers who want to be considered for a judicial vacancy must apply for it, then are interviewed by the commissioners.
Once the commissioners submit their three nominations to the governor, he has up to 60 days to appoint one of the nominees to the vacancy.
If he chooses not to make an appointment, the Constitution gives the choice to the commissioners - but so far no governor has failed to make that appointment.
"It's an extraordinarily important decision, and we will be dedicating a lot of time to it over the course of the next coming weeks," Greitens said.
The Appellate Judicial Commission makes nominations for vacancies on the Supreme Court and the three appeals court divisions.
The Nonpartisan Plan also affects the trial courts in St. Louis City and St. Louis, Jackson, Clay, Platte and Greene counties - with local commissions for each of those local courts.
In addition to the Supreme Court vacancy, Greitens this week received nominations for two associate circuit judges' jobs in St. Louis County and, at the end of January, a vacancy in the St. Louis City courts.
He must decide each of those within 60 days of receiving the nominations for a specific court.
"We have to have a quality court system here (in the state) - I think it's an imperative," he said. "And we've got to have a judicial system that the people of Missouri have trust in."
During last year's election campaign, Greitens said he wanted to see changes in the way Missouri's courts operate - including changing some of the rules affecting lawsuits, which lawmakers currently are debating, and in the way judges get their jobs.
He offered few specifics about the judicial selection process during the campaign, although he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he liked the process in Tennessee, where the governor appoints a judge with legislative approval - similar to the federal government plan.
Missouri voters would have to approve any changes to the Constitution's Nonpartisan Plan.
"We're going to deal with the process that is right in front of us, right now," Greitens said Thursday. "(These nominations) give us a really good, fair chance to see how this process is working right now."