Kansas

Taking some lawmakers by surprise, prominent Republicans in the house and senate announced that they will continue their pursuit of a constitutional change to the process for selecting supreme court and court of appeals judges in the final days of this legislative session.

By a vote of 28-12, the senate gave final approval to a bill that ends the role of the nominating commission in appointing court of appeals judges and requires senate confirmation of such appointments. The house of representatives passed the bill earlier this month. The constitution need not be amended to accomplish the change.

A new poll—this one commissioned by the Kansas Policy Institute—shows that Kansans see no need to change the process for selecting the state’s appellate judges. According to the recent poll, 54 percent of Kansans believe it is “in citizens’ best interests to have judges recommended for appointment to the Kansas Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals by a majority-attorney panel,” while 39 percent disagree.

This week the judiciary committee in both the house of representatives and the senate approved measures that would alter the process for choosing the state’s appellate judges. The proposed constitutional amendment would eliminate the judicial nominating commission and require senate confirmation of appointments.

In response to anticipated legislative proposals to alter the process for selecting the state’s appellate judges, with the most prominent being the discontinuance of the judicial nominating commission and the addition of senate confirmation, the Kansas Bar Association endorsed a plan to restructure the nominating commission.

Conservative lawmakers are expected to pursue a change in the process for selecting Kansas’ appellate judges in 2013. Critics of the current process believe that lawyers have too much control, with five of the nine members of the judicial nominating commission elected by the state bar association.

As IAALS Online has covered previously, Governor Brownback and conservative state legislators are expected to pursue changes to the process for choosing Kansas’ appellate judges in the upcoming legislative session. An unfavorable judicial decision in a school funding case could lend momentum to those efforts.

Governor Sam Brownback and his conservative allies have gained substantial majorities in both houses of the Kansas Legislature as a result of the recent general election. With this support, it is predicted that in early 2013 Governor Brownback will propose a constitutional amendment replacing the current merit selection system for the Kansas Supreme Court and Court of Appeals with partisan elections along with term limits to create turnover on the benches.

Governor Brownback’s chief counsel is among 21 applicants for a court of appeals vacancy. After screening and interviewing the applicants, the nominating commission will identify three candidates from which the governor must choose.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that rejected a constitutional challenge to the state’s merit selection system. Opponents of the process argued that having five lawyers on the nine-member supreme court nominating commission, who are not popularly elected or appointed by an elected official, violates the Equal Protection Clause’s “one person, one vote” requirement.