14 August 2025
ST. LOUIS – The Twenty-Second Circuit Judicial Commission (city of St. Louis), which has two new commissioners, is reopening the circuit judge vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable Bryan L. Hettenbach for additional applicants who did not already apply in June.
The commission encourages qualified individuals to apply for judicial office. Qualifications for circuit judges may be found in article V, section 21 of the Missouri Constitution.
Application forms are linked below.
Applications, including Page 1 Confidential Information, will be accepted until 5 p.m. Friday, September 5, 2025, via e-mail only to 22ndJudicialCommission@courts.mo.gov. Any applicant who previously applied for the Peebles or Hettenbach vacancies does not need to submit a full application but may forward a letter of interest instead, while documenting any applicable changes since submitting their last application. Letters should be e-mailed to: 22ndJudicialCommission@courts.mo.gov and the e-mail’s subject line should reference the position the applicant is pursuing, specifically the Hettenbach circuit vacancy. If pursuing the Peebles associate circuit vacancy as well, the applicant should indicate that in the subject line.
The commission expects to conduct interviews on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 in the Division Courtroom of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, 815 Olive Street, St. Louis, Missouri. In accordance with Rule 10.28 the interviews will be open to the public. Immediately upon the conclusion of the public interviews, the commission expects to meet and select the nominees whose names will be submitted to the governor. The commission anticipates reopening the Mason circuit judge vacancy in the coming months.
The members of the Twenty-Second Circuit Judicial Commission are: John P. Torbitzky, chief judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District and chairperson of the commission; Eva Frazer; Patrick Hamacher; John Schicker;and Erica Slater.
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Contact: Morgan A. Coleman, clerk of the court
Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District
(314) 539-4300