“Physician, heal thyself.” —  Luke 4:23

Within minutes after word reached the capitol that Jefferson City Circuit Judge Pat Joyce had thrown one of the Republicans’ top issues off the ballot — voter photo ID — because its ballot summary was “insufficient and unfair,” Senator Scott Rupp put out a press release headlined “Another Bad Court Decision.”

In our long years of watching the legislature and watching what seems to be an increasing number of court rulings against the laws it passes and hearing legislators blame the courts for “bad” decisions, we have reached a pretty basic conclusion.

There would not be so many “bad” court decisions if members of the legislature didn’t do such “bad” jobs of writing bills.

Just as losing candidates almost never blame themselves for their losses, legislators seldom blame themselves when courts find they passed flawed bills.