Edward D. Robertson, Jr.

Who is Edward D. Robertson, Jr.?

Edward D. "Chip" Robertson, Jr. is a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri. Robertson was 33 years old when then-Governor John Ashcroft picked him to serve on the court, and he served from 1985 to 1998. His appointment - Ashcroft's first to the high court - led to claims that the non-partisan Missouri Plan for appointing judges was actually a highly partisan process; twenty years later, Robertson would join opposition to Republican efforts to dismantle the system. In 1998 he left the Supreme Court to join a Kansas City firm that was led Missouri's lawsuit against tobacco companies. Robertson was rumored to be mulling a challenge to then-Governor Matt Blunt, also a Republican, but he never did.