HUNTER, ELMO BOLTON
Elmo Bolton Hunter, a federal judge, has been
a leader in national efforts to take party politics
out of the state courts through the adoption of
judicial merit selection programs. (Under most
merit selection systems, a nonpartisan com-
mission of lawyers and nonlawyers evaluates
candidates for judicial vacancies and sends rec-
ommendations to, usually, a governor, who
makes appointments.) In 1990, the American
Judicature Society (AJS) funded the first
national clearinghouse for information on
merit selection; located at AJS headquarters in
Chicago, it is known as the Elmo B. Hunter
Center for Judicial Selection. The AJS also gives
the Elmo B. Hunter Award annually to a person
who has made significant improvement in the
judicial selection process.
Hunter was born in St. Louis on October 23,
1915. He attended the University of Missouri—
Columbia, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in
1936 and a bachelor of laws degree in 1938.
Named Phi Beta Kappa as an undergraduate, he
continued his academic excellence in law school.
Hunter graduated first in his class and was
elected to the ORDER OF THE COIF.He was also a
member of the law review and author of numer-
ous articles.
In his final year of law school, Hunter was
chosen by the Board of Curators of the Univer-
sity of Missouri to receive the Judge Shepard
Barclay Award for “the greatest contribution in
moral leadership to the school.” Also in 1938,
Hunter was selected by the board to represent
the University of Missouri—and the state of
