Missouri Court of Appeals
Court information
Judges:	32
Salary:	$157,242[1]
Judicial selection
Method:	Assisted appointment
Term:	12 years

The Missouri Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for the state of Missouri. The court of appeals handles appeals from the circuit courts. In Missouri, the appellate court system is divided into three districts: eastern, western and southern.^[2]

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, is the state's largest appellate court, with offices located in the historic Old Post Office building in downtown St. Louis. The court is composed of 14 judges who handle approximately 50 percent of the intermediate appellate caseload in Missouri, covering 25 counties and the city of St. Louis. Oral arguments are regularly conducted in St. Louis, Clayton, Hannibal, Cape Girardeau and other locations within the Eastern District.^[3]

Based on the number of counties in its jurisdiction (45), the Western District is the state's largest intermediate appellate court, and is located in its own courthouse in downtown Kansas City. The court is composed of 11 judges and handles almost 40 percent of the appellate caseload in Missouri. Oral arguments are normally conducted in Kansas City but are also conducted in Jefferson City, Colombia, St. Joseph, Kirksville, and other Western District locations.^[4]

The Southern District has offices in Springfield, Mo., and maintains a courthouse and chambers in Poplar Bluff. Oral arguments are regularly conducted in both locations. The court is composed of seven judges, and its jurisdiction covers 44 counties in southern Missouri.^[5]

The court of appeals handles all appeals except those in the supreme court's exclusive jurisdiction: challenges to the validity of a United States statute or treaty, the validity of a state constitutional provision or statute, cases requiring construction of revenue laws, the title to state office and cases where the death penalty is imposed.

Court of appeals cases may be appealed to the supreme court. However, historically, the supreme court hears less than 10 percent of appeals. Thus, for the vast majority of appeals, the court of appeals decision is final.^[6]

Procedure

In an appeal, the court receives a record of what occurred in the circuit court. Typically, each side files a publicly available brief featuring arguments and the basis for them, such as past court decisions and laws. Each side is allowed to present an oral argument and answer questions from the judges. After the arguments, the judges determine whether the trial court made any prejudicial mistakes. In researching and deciding opinions, the court considers the briefs and oral arguments, as well as the transcripts, pleadings and exhibits from the trial.^[6]

• Published opinions of the Missouri Court of Appeals can be found here.

Judges

Judge	Term	Appointed by
Judge Lisa White Hardwick	2001-2026	Gov. Bob Holden (D)
Judge Robert Dowd	1994-2020	Gov. Mel Carnahan (D)
Judge Mary Kathryn Hoff	1995-2022	Gov. Mel Carnahan (D)
Judge Lawrence Mooney	1998-2024	Gov. Mel Carnahan (D)
Judge Roy Richter	2006-2020	Gov. Matt Blunt (R)
Judge Sherri Sullivan	1999-2024	Gov. Mel Carnahan (D)
Judge Kurt Odenwald	2007-2020	Gov. Matt Blunt (R)
Judge Victor Howard	1996-2022	Gov. Mel Carnahan (D)
Judge Thomas Newton	1999-2024	Gov. Mel Carnahan (D)
Judge Alok Ahuja	2007-2022	Gov. Matt Blunt (R)
Judge James Edward Welsh	2007-2022	Gov. Matt Blunt (R)
Judge Gary Lynch	2006-2020	Gov. Matt Blunt (R)
Judge Jeffrey Bates	2003-2018	Gov. Bob Holden (D)
Judge Nancy Steffen Rahmeyer	2001-2026	Gov. Bob Holden (D)
Judge Don Burrell	2007-2022	Gov. Matt Blunt (R)
Chief Judge Mark Pfeiffer	2009-2022	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Daniel Scott	2006-2020	Gov. Matt Blunt (R)
Judge Karen Mitchell	2009-2022	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Gary Gaertner Jr.	2010-2024	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Gary Witt	2010-2024	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Anthony Rex Gabbert	2013-2026	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Colleen Dolan	2016-2018	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Angela T. Quigless	2012-2026	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Lisa Van Amburg	2012-2026	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Lisa K. Page	2015-2018	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Chief Judge Mary Sheffield (Missouri)	2012-2026	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge William W. Francis, Jr.	2010-2024	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Robert M. Clayton, III	2011-2024	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Cynthia Lynette Martin	2009-2024	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Chief Judge Philip M. Hess	2013-2028	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge James M. Dowd	2015-2028	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)
Judge Ted Ardini	2016-2018	Gov. Jay Nixon (D)

Former judges

• Robert Barney
• Kathianne Knaup Crane
• Kenneth Romines
• James Smart
• Clifford Ahrens^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

Judicial selection

The judges of the court of appeals are selected under the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, which includes selection by the Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission based on merit, gubernatorial appointment and retention by the voters. All judges serve 12-year terms.^[8]

For details about Missouri's judicial elections, visit the Missouri judicial elections page.

Qualifications

To serve on the court of appeals, a judge must be:

• licensed to practice in Missouri;
• a U.S. citizen for at least 15 years;
• a qualified state voter for at least nine years;
• a resident of the district over which the judge presides;
• at least 30 years old and at most 70 years old^[12]

Salary

The annual salary for judges of the Missouri Court of Appeals has been $154,176 since 2014.^[13]

Elections

2018

See also: Missouri judicial elections, 2018

Judges with expiring terms

This is a list of the judges who must stand for retention in 2018 in order to remain on the bench. Judges may choose not to stand for retention or may retire. In retention elections, a judge stands for a "yes" or "no" vote; no challengers may run in the elections. The list is subject to change if judges retire or are appointed.

■ Jeffrey Bates
■ Colleen Dolan
■ Lisa K. Page
■ Ted Ardini

2016

Judges who faced retention

■ Philip M. Hess
■ James M. Dowd

Election results

Philip M. Hess was retained in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Hess' Seat election with 60.52% of the vote.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Hess' Seat, 2016
Name	Yes votes
Philip M. Hess	60.52%
Source: Missouri Secretary of State Official Results

James M. Dowd was retained in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Dowd's Seat election with 61.49% of the vote.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Dowd's Seat, 2016
Name	Yes votes
James M. Dowd	61.49%
Source: Missouri Secretary of State Official Results

2014

Retention

Judge	Election Vote
SheffieldMary Sheffield (Missouri)	69.2% A
AmburgLisa Van Amburg	67.3% A
QuiglessAngela T. Quigless	61.1% A
GabbertAnthony Rex Gabbert	65.1% A
RahmeyerNancy Steffen Rahmeyer	68.2% A
HardwickLisa White Hardwick	66.8% A

2012

Candidate	Incumbency	Division	Primary Vote	Election Vote
MartinCynthia Lynette Martin   A	Yes	Western District		A
Gaertner Jr.Gary Gaertner Jr.   A	Yes	Eastern District		A
WittGary Witt   A	Yes	Western District		A
MooneyLawrence Mooney   A	Yes	Eastern District		A
Clayton IIIRobert M. Clayton, III   A	Yes	Eastern District		A
SullivanSherri Sullivan   A	Yes	Eastern District		A
NewtonThomas Newton   A	Yes	Western District		A
Francis Jr.William W. Francis, Jr.   A	Yes	Southern District		A

Ethics

The Missouri Code of Judicial Conduct sets forth ethical guidelines and principles for the conduct of judges and judicial candidates in Missouri. It is composed of four canons:

• Canon 1: "A Judge Shall Uphold and Promote the Independence, Integrity and Impartiality of the Judiciary and Avoid Impropriety and Appearance of Impropriety"
• Canon 2: "A Judge Shall Perform the Duties of Judicial Office Impartially, Competently and Diligently"
• Canon 3: "A Judge Shall So Conduct the Judge's Extrajudicial Activities as to Minimize the Risk of Conflict with Judicial Obligations"
• Canon 4: "A Judge or Judicial Candidate Shall not Engage in Political or Campaign Activity Inconsistent with the Independence, Integrity or Impartiality of the Judiciary"^[14]

The full text of the Missouri Code of Judicial Conduct can be found here.

Removal of judges

Judges in Missouri may be removed in one of two ways:

• Retirement or removal by the supreme court, on the recommendation of the commission on retirement, removal and discipline
• Impeachment by the house of representatives; impeachments are tried by the supreme court, and five-sevenths of the court must concur in order to convict^[15]

Notable decisions

• Red light cameras in Missouri courts	Click for summary→
Red-light cameras were a hot topic in 2013, and Missouri was no exception to this fact. After two November 2013 decisions on red-light cameras, the Missouri Court of Appeals made another ruling in mid-December concerning the issue.[16] This ruling, handed down by the court’s Eastern District, reversed an earlier ruling upholding a red-light camera law in Arnold, Missouri--the first community in the state to install the cameras back in 2006. The cameras, spreading across the state by 2013, are intended to monitor drivers who run red lights. Alleged violators receive tickets in the mail.[16] It was unclear how the latest ruling would affect Arnold, a suburb of St. Louis. The attorney for the plaintiffs, Ryan Keane, said prosecutors now must prove that the recipient of a ticket is not only the owner of the vehicle, but the actual driver at the time of the violation.[16] "This is a big decision," he said.[16] In November of 2013, a three-judge panel of the Eastern District ruled that a law in Ellisville, another St. Louis suburb, could not be enforced because it contradicted the state law for moving violations. Missouri law requires points to be assessed against a violator. After that ruling, several towns ceased enforcement.[16] Later that month, the Western District reversed a decision by a Jackson County judge. In that case, there was a lawsuit against Kansas City and American Traffic Solutions Inc., which operates red-light cameras. The lawsuit, which also addressed the contradiction between state and local law, was dismissed by the judge.[16]

State profile

This excerpt is reprinted here with the permission of the 2016 edition of the Almanac of American Politics and is up to date as of the publication date of that edition. All text is reproduced verbatim, though links have been added by Ballotpedia staff. To read the full chapter on Missouri, click here.

The Gateway Arch, rising gracefully over the Mississippi River, is a worthy tribute to St. Louis and Missouri as the gateway to the American West, but it is no longer a gleaming symbol of the state’s vigor and prosperity. This land was part of France’s thinly settled North American empire; St. Louis, just below the swirling confluence of the Missouri River and the Mississippi, was founded by Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau in 1764, while further south in Missouri, the French began mining in the Old Lead Belt as early as 1720. All this and much more was acquired by the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and on May 14, 1804, at Thomas Jefferson’s direction, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and their party set out from St. Louis on their expedition to the Pacific. St. Louis was then the one well-established city in America’s interior, with an aristocracy of French merchants, a brawling bourgeoisie of Yankee and Southern frontiersmen and fur traders, and a proletariat of black slaves. Statehood came in 1821, and for years thereafter, the frontier democracy was a passage for westward expansion, captured in the ... (read more)

Demographic data for Missouri
	Missouri	U.S.
Total population:	6,028,076	314,107,084
Land area (sq mi):	68,742	3,531,905
Gender
Female:	51%	50.8%
Race and ethnicity
White:	80.5%	62.8%
Black/African American:	11.5%	12.6%
Asian:	1.7%	5%
Native American:	0.4%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.4%	2.9%
Hispanic/Latino:	3.8%	16.9%
Education
High school graduation rate:	88%	86.3%
College graduation rate:	26.7%	29.3%
Income
Median household income:	$47,764	$53,482
Persons below poverty level:	15.6%	14.8%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2014)

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Missouri

Missouri voted Republican in all five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016.

More Missouri coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Missouri
• United States congressional delegations from Missouri
• Public policy in Missouri
• Influencers in Missouri
• Verbatim Missouri fact checks
• More...

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Missouri Court Appeals. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles; they are included to provide readers with the most recent news articles on the subject. Click here to learn more about this section.

See also

• Missouri Supreme Court

External links

• Your Missouri Courts, "Judges of the Missouri Eastern Appellate District"
• Your Missouri Courts, "Judges of the Missouri Southern Appellate District"
• Your Missouri Courts, "Judges of the Missouri Western Appellate District"
• The Kansas City Star, "Judges block path to retrial of KC lawyer Buchli for murder," December 20, 2011

Footnotes

v • e State intermediate appellate courts Alabama Civil • Alabama Criminal • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Nebraska • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania Superior • Pennsylvania Commonwealth • South Carolina • Tennessee Civil • Tennessee Criminal • Texas • Utah • Virginia • Washington • Wisconsin