Appeals Court Rules Missouri Governor Holds Power in Appointing County Prosecutor

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson listens to a media question during a press conference in Jefferson City, Mo., on May 29, 2019. Jacob Moscovitch/Getty Images

A Missouri appeals court ruled on Thursday that Gov. Mike Parson holds the authority to appoint St. Louis County’s next prosecuting attorney, following competing nomination from the county.

The ruling followed a legal dispute between Parson, a Republican, and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, a Democrat, over the right to appoint the replacement to outgoing prosecuting attorney, Wesley Bell, who will leave office for Congress on Jan. 3.

Parson has named Melissa Price Smith, a 56-year-old assistant prosecutor in St. Louis County, to fill in the remaining two years of Bell’s term. Page, on the other hand, has nominated 36-year-old former federal prosecutor Cort VanOstran for the role.

The three-judge panel upheld a previous ruling by a circuit judge, stating that “because the prosecuting attorney performs essential state functions as a state officer, the governor has the constitutional and statutory authority to make the appointment to fill the vacancy.”

The ruling stated that the county would have control of the selection process if the St. Louis County prosecutor were a county officer but that the revised statutes of Missouri strongly indicated that the prosecuting attorney “is not a pure ‘county officer.’”

“The language of the Missouri Constitution and statutes lead this court to the inescapable conclusion that the prosecuting attorney performs essential state governmental functions,” the ruling stated. “As a result, the County’s charter provisions are ’subject to the statutes of the state enacted by the Legislature.'”

The panel further stated that Missouri courts have “long recognized that a prosecuting attorney serves as ‘a quasi-judicial officer,’ ... representing the people of the state.”

“Decades of case law, as well as state statutes, demonstrate that the County prosecuting attorney performs the quintessential state governmental function of maintaining order and enforcing the State’s laws within the County,” the panel stated.

The circuit court had previously issued a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to prevent the county from filling the anticipated vacancy in the prosecuting attorney’s office.

The circuit court’s December ruling was based on a section of the Missouri Constitution that states the governor “shall fill all vacancies in public offices, unless otherwise provided by law.” Page had argued that the county’s charter qualified as another law.

The Epoch Times reached out to Page for comment but did not hear back by publication time.

The county announced following the ruling that Smith would be sworn in on Jan. 3 to replace Bell, who was elected for Congress in the November 2024 election.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.