Kansas Supreme Court amendment: Voters will decide whether to directly elect justices
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I'm intern Nora Crutcher-McGowan. Should Kansans be able to directly pick the state's Supreme Court judges? That is the question on a proposed constitutional amendment that all voters, regardless of political party, can vote on next Tuesday in the state. To recap what's on the amendment, we'll play a four-minute feature from Kansas Public Radio State House Borough Chief Zach Boblett. Then Steve will speak with Sarah Stula, who worked as a research attorney at the Kansas Supreme Court for three years and is in favor of the passage of the amendment, as well as Micah Kubik, who is the executive director of ACLU of Kansas and chair of Kansas United for Impartial Courts. He's advocating against the amendment.
Here's Zach Boblett. Kansas used to elect justices, but that changed after a 1950s scheme by then-Governor Fred Hall. Here he is discussing education funding, which was still a political hot potato nearly 70 years ago. We accepted the obligation of helping our local communities by giving state aid to our elementary schools. I have constantly advocated the continuance and enlargement of this program. The scheme goes like this. A Kansas Supreme Court justice retires. Hall resigns as governor just 11 days before he's going to leave office because he was not reelected, and his lieutenant governor appoints him to the Supreme Court. After this scandal known as the Triple Play, Kansas changed its constitution away from the partisan election of justices.
The current system includes a nine-person panel appointed by the governor and the Kansas Bar Association. It vets the candidates, then sends three finalists to the governor to pick one. But an amendment vote in August would return to directly electing justices onto the Kansas Supreme Court. This would mean justices campaigning and taking donations, which could change how the court rules on major issues. Some critics of the change say this is a redo of the 2022 vote on constitutional abortion rights, which Kansans rejected. This time, they say it's through how justices are selected. At the end of the day, this is about banning abortion and restricting rights that Kansans have demanded they keep. That's Planned Parenthood Great Plains President and CEO Emily Wales.
Many conservative lawmakers in Kansas have not been happy about rulings on abortion rights and school funding. Wales says that's what this is about. The end game is to put justices... on the Supreme Court that are going to be in line with their political values. A 2022 Wichita Eagle article quoted Attorney General Chris Kobach as he outlined a new path to an abortion ban, which starts by directly electing justices. Kobach did not respond to requests for comment. During a recent Republican gubernatorial debate, Republican Senate President Ty Masterson said electing justices would better represent Kansans.
I'm going to support whatever gives the people of Kansas the biggest voice in that branch. That is the problem. We have a court that does not reflect the Kansas people's values.
James Franco is president of the right-leaning think tank, the Kansas Policy Institute. He says the court currently has little check on its power. It's just hard for me to think that that has really proven itself to be the case with nine unelected people on this nominating commission.
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