Edward D. "Chip" Robertson Jr. (born May 1, 1952) is a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri.
[1] 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;[2] 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 which led Missouri's lawsuit against tobacco companies.
[3] As early as 2005, Robertson was rumored to be mulling a challenge to then-Governor Matt Blunt in the 2008 Republican primary, but ultimately declined.
[4][5] In 2021, Robertson's assistance was enlisted to help seek the exoneration of Kevin Strickland, who had spent 43 years in prison despite substantial indications of complete innocence of murders committed in a Kansas City home invasion.