Kansans for Life, an anti-abortion group, announced at an anti-abortion rally in January that the group would work to change how Kansas Supreme Court justices are chosen, saying the current system gave too much power to attorneys.
A nine-member Supreme Court Nominating Commission screened applicants whenever a vacancy opened. Four were non-attorneys appointed by the governor. Lawyers chose the other five: one attorney from each of the state’s four congressional districts and a chair elected by attorneys statewide. The commission sent the governor the names of the three most-qualified nominees, and the governor had 60 days to choose one. Justices then stood for retention every six years, and Court of Appeals and district judges every four years.
Kansas voters adopted the commission system by amending the state constitution in 1958, after a scandal known as the “Kansas Triple Play,” which involved political maneuvers over the course of three days. The scandal began when Gov. Fred Hall lost reelection in 1956 and his longtime friend, the chief justice, resigned.
In 2013, the Legislature changed the process for the Kansas Court of Appeals to allow the governor to nominate a candidate subject to approval by the Kansas Senate. Kansans for Life lobbied successfully for the 2013 bill. Changing how Supreme Court justices were chosen required a constitutional amendment.
A 2010 bill to replace the merit selection system with gubernatorial appointment failed by a 17-22 vote in the Kansas Senate. Stephen Ware, a law professor at the University of Kansas, wrote in a 2007 paper that “Kansas is the only state in the union that gives the members of its bar majority control over the selection of state supreme court justices.”
Peter Hardin reported this story for Gavel Grab on Jan. 23, 2014, when the site was a project of Justice at Stake. His original post is preserved by the Internet Archive. This account of the same events was written from the public record.
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