GOP Effort to Intimidate Judges is Successful
It appears as though Jeff Roe and James Harris --who've created an entire entity whose purpose is to attack Missouri judges and threaten them with the same treatment they gave Cole County Circuit Judge Tom Brown in 2006-- have achieved their poorly hidden goal.
As blogger Dan at Gone Mild noted months ago, Roe himself has celebrated the successful intimidation of judges in other cases. Dan noted a since-deleted blogpost by Roe which reveled in the idea that political pressure by conservative interest groups had goaded a judge into trying to appease them with his decision and avoid the fate of Tom Brown (emphasis mine).
Unfortunately, Callahan's decisions could be overturned by judges at a higher level who have not yet learned the lesson Callahan seems to have learned. Given the recent controversy surrounding judicial nominations, The Source has to wonder if political favor, and not the Missouri Constitution, will ultimately win the day.
This was, in no uncertain terms, an overt and ugly victory dance by Roe. He's surely doing the same thing today. A sad moment for justice in Missouri.
Callahan made the right call
Whether it was for the right reasons or not, Judge Callahan made the right call.
The SOS was attempting to confuse the voters (for political reasons). That should not be the agenda of either party. The wording of the initiative that Robin attempted to put on the ballot was more than a little confusing; it was outright deceptive.