Tag: Kansas

Schmidt eager to reform selection of Supreme Court justices; Kelly prefers status quo

Kansas attorney general candidates split on direct election of justices

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Overland Park — Republican gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt wants the Kansas Constitution amended to require Kansas Senate confirmation votes on a governor’s nominees to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Schmidt, the state’s attorney general, said Kansas should mimic the federal model allowing the president to unilaterally nominate people to the U.S. Supreme Court subject to votes of the U.S. Senate.

He said during a debate Wednesday with Gov. Laura Kelly hosted by the Johnson County Bar Association that Kansas voters should be given the opportunity to modify the state Constitution as it related to membership of the state Supreme Court. He said for about 15 years he had “generally advocated something that looks more like the federal model.”

Kelly, a Democrat who has made three appointments to the seven-member state Supreme Court, said the merit-selection system drawing upon recommendations of a commission of attorneys and nonlawyers had served Kansas well since 1958. Kansans voted to adopt the current process in wake of a 1956 scandal in which Gov. Fred Hall relied on political alliances to land a seat on the state’s highest court.

“I think Kansans have long memories,” Kelly said. “We’ve seen games being played when that (Hall) process was in place.”

She said Kansas ought to continue to depend on the nine-member nominating commission’s assessment of applicants’ credentials and compilation of a list of three finalists for slots on the Supreme Court. Governors should still make the final pick, she said.

Election of justices

Neither Kelly nor Schmidt backed a proposal embraced by Kris Kobach, the GOP nominee for attorney general, for direct election of Supreme Court justices. Kobach previously endorsed shifting Kansas to the federal model with Senate confirmation of a governor’s nominees.

Kobach offered the direct-vote proposal in context of his disappointment with a Supreme Court decision saying the state Constitution afforded women a right to abortion as well as the subsequent failure of a proposed constitutional amendment in an August election that would have nullified the controversial abortion decision of the Supreme Court.

Kobach said during a campaign speech in Wichita the direct-election strategy would result in the slow, steady addition of anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court.

Chris Mann, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, said the federal process invited the Senate to engage in an overtly political process of selecting Supreme Court justices. On Thursday, he said election of justices would have tragic consequences.

“This is a clear push by Kris Kobach towards his own political agenda. This office is not about one man’s political agenda,” Mann said. “Kansans have spoke and overwhelmingly voted to protect their right to private medical decisions. As attorney general, I will enforce the law and protect the constitutional rights of all Kansans.”

During the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback, the Legislature voted to abandon the merit-review process and make use of the federal approach to fill vacancies on the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Brownback made use of that law in 2014 when he put his administration’s general counsel, Caleb Stegall, on the Court of Appeals. Stegall also was appointed by Brownback to the Supreme Court.

Schmidt said reform of the selection process for the Court of Appeals proved useful when the Senate’s confirmation hearings in 2019 highlighted nominee Jeffrey Jack’s posts to Twitter denouncing President Donald Trump and other GOP lawmakers. It proved to be Jack’s downfall. Before named a district court judge, Jack served as a Republican in the Kansas House.

“It had the effect of screening out a candidate,” Schmidt said. “Ultimately everybody, including the governor, concluded (Jack) was unsuitable for the role.”

Subsequently, the Senate twice refused to confirm Court of Appeals nominee Carl Folsom, despite bipartisan support for him. Kelly responded to the Folsom decision by denouncing the focus on raw partisanship, rather than professional abilities.

“It breaks with longstanding tradition of keeping politics out of the courts. What you have in my nominee is one of the very best and one of the very brightest,” Kelly said.

Kelly voluntarily instituted the commission vetting process for vacancies on the Court of Appeals when she took office in 2019.

“I like having those folks screening,” Kelly said.

Nominating commission

Brownback, Schmidt, Kobach and other Republicans have complained about the nominating commission because five of nine seats were held by lawyers in good standing with the Kansas bar. During the Wednesday debate, Schmidt said it was unfair to 3 million Kansans that 9,000 members of the state bar possessed power to chose a majority of the commission’s members.

Members of the bar select an attorney to serve as commission chairman as well as four attorneys to represent each of the state’s congressional districts. Kansas governors name four nonlawyers to the commission, with one coming from each congressional district.

The commission gathers applications for judicial vacancies and must produce within 60 days a list of three finalists. Governors select from the group of finalists, but also could reject all three and the process would be repeated.

In Kansas, Supreme Court justices are subject to statewide retention votes. The initial vote occurs in the first election after a justice was sworn into the bench followed by individual retention votes on a six-year cycle.

In November, Kansas voters have an opportunity to directly decide whether to retain six of seven justices on the Supreme Court. The one escaping scrutiny in 2022 is Justice Eric Rosen, who was appointed in 2005 by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

The other Sebelius appointee on the Supreme Court, Justice Dan Biles, will be on the ballot. He has served as a justice since 2009.

The three Kelly selections for the Supreme Court will be considered by the state’s voters Nov. 8. Justices Melissa Taylor Standridge, Kenyen K.J. Wall and Evelyn Wilson were appointed to the high court in 2020.

Also on the ballot: Chief Justice Marla Luckert, appointed by Republican Gov. Bill Graves in 2002, and Stegall, appointed by Brownback in 2014.

During the September debate between Kelly and Schmidt in Hutchinson, Kelly said she would vote to retain all the justices. Schmidt said he would vote against some, but didn’t identify members he would oppose.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com,may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/10/06/schmidt-eager-to-reform-selection-of-supreme-court-justices-kelly-prefers-status-quo/

November election to decide Kansas Supreme Court climate, constitutional amendments

Six Kansas Supreme Court justices up for retention; two constitutional amendments proposed

by Rachel Mipro, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — In November, six of Kansas’ seven Supreme Court judges are up for retention votes, and two constitutional amendments will be decided.

Advocacy groups say these choices on the November ballot offer voters an opportunity to shift Kansas’ political landscape.

One state constitution amendment focuses on reducing the governor’s executive power and the other on protecting the elected position of sheriffs across the state. The amendments have been criticized for pushing partisan agendas by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, but some legislators and law officials say more oversight of executive agencies is needed.

The proposed legislative veto

The Kansas Legislature currently has the ability to overturn executive rules and regulations by a two-thirds majority vote and a signature from the governor. This amendment would change that, authorizing the Legislature to revoke or suspend policies from the state executive by a simple majority vote, with no governor signature required. The amendment would shift power away from the governor and toward the legislature.

Critics say the amendment is a reaction to Gov. Laura Kelly’s policies. Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who is running against Kelly in the race for governor, first proposed it in February 2021, following Kelly’s decision to temporarily close schools at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schmidt has used Kelly’s handling of the pandemic as a key part of his platform during his gubernatorial campaign, saying her pandemic-era lockdowns and mandates hurt Kansas students.

“A legislative veto would enable the Legislature to reject specific agency rules and regulations in a targeted manner, acting as a check-and-balance over regulatory sprawl and making the Legislature itself more accountable to the people of Kansas for how agencies use the power the Legislature has given them,” Schmidt said in a release supporting the amendment. “This is a victory for regulatory accountability and citizen control of state government, and I am hopeful Kansas voters will approve the proposed amendment in November.”

If Kelly is reelected and the amendment passes, the Republican-dominated Senate and House would have veto power over any executive branch action, including power over the state agencies under Kelly’s jurisdiction.

Amii Castle, a constitutional law professor at the University of Kansas, said during a League of Women Voters of Johnson County discussion the proposed amendment had worrying implications.

“This amendment, if passed, would take the governor completely out of the equation,” Castle said. “And so that if 51% of our legislature decides that they want to revoke that regulation, they can do it with a simple majority. Fifty-one percent and it never goes to the governor. There’s no veto power. So it’s basically taking power from the executive branch, those administrative agencies that the governor oversees, taking power from the executive branch and giving it to 51% of our state legislators.”

Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said the amendment threatened constitutional rights, and would create a dangerous power imbalance.

“What this really does is set up a permanent state of conflict and chaos between the governor, whoever they are, and their ability to implement laws and the legislature in perpetuity,” Kubic said. “I think that is really a sign of instability and creates uncertainty in the state government in a way that I think is really, really dangerous for democracy.”

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled against a similar measure in 1984 that would have allowed the Legislature to suspend or revoke administrative rules, calling it unconstitutional and a violation of the separation of powers.

Sheriff election and recall proposal

The amendment on the Kansas county sheriff election and recall could help keep controversial Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden in his position. The amendment says counties that elected sheriffs in January 2022 can continue to elect sheriffs — meaning the sheriff’s position would be fixed as an elected position, instead of an appointed position for all but one of Kansas counties.

The amendment comes after discussion about making the sheriff’s position appointed in Johnson County, following some of Hayden’s actions. Hayden is leading a criminal investigation into alleged election fraud in the 2020 elections, and has also said he would form an “army” of his employees to defend Kansans against the Internal Service Revenue if needed.

The amendment also stipulates the county sheriffs can only be removed from office by a recall election or if the attorney general challenges their right to hold office. Schmidt has supported the amendment, saying the sheriff’s office had “deep historical roots,” in April, when the amendment was voted on by the Legislature.

Under the current Kansas system, district attorneys, along with the attorney general, can initiate legal proceedings if they believe there’s been misconduct in the sheriff’s office, with a judge ultimately deciding whether or not there has been misconduct. The amendment would take away this power from all 104 district attorneys in the state, leaving only the attorney general with the ability to investigate misconduct.

Castle said the amendment can lead to abuse of power, since the attorney general could play favorites and not investigate sheriffs they liked.

“It puts the power with the person who sits in Topeka for most days,” Castle said. “The only person who has power to initiate an investigation into a sheriff will be solely with the attorney general, and it will take away power from our local district attorneys to even initiate an investigation into a sheriff.”

Hayden supports the amendment, saying voters should be able to choose their elected officials.

“The politicians want to get rid of the sheriff’s position because we’re in the way,” Hayden said during a September meeting on election fraud.

Retention of judges

Kansas currently operates a merit-based Supreme Court judicial selection process, in which a nine-person panel nominates candidates and sends them to the governor, who makes the final selection. After the judge serves for a year, the public votes in a general election whether or not to keep them in the position. If the judge is approved, they serve for six years on the Supreme Court.

In the November election, six of the seven Supreme Court justices are up for retention, and seven of the 14 Kansas Court of Appeals judges are up for retention.

The state Supreme Court voted to uphold abortion rights in 2019, when a majority hearing the case ruled the Kansas Bill of Rights protected the right to an abortion. Pro-life activists are now campaigning to unseat these judges and create an anti-abortion court.

“The big money that you will see mobilizing trying to get people to fire the Kansas Supreme Court is 100% about abortion and about the right to choose,” Kubic said. “Various real people in real life may be upset about different things. But the folks that were organizing and mobilizing and raising millions of dollars to try and defeat them, their only interest here is on the abortion issue.”


Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/10/04/november-election-to-decide-kansas-supreme-court-climate-constitutional-amendments/.

Grab all the fish you want while they’re still alive — this Kansas lake is drying up

There’s a temporary free-for-all at Ellis City Lake, where the same hideous drought that’s killing western Kansas crops is poised to kill the fish. So many of the usual limits on fishing have been lifted to harvest fish before they die.

by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, KCUR and Kansas News Service

Grab the fish at Ellis City Lake by net, by hand — whatever. Just take as many as you want.

They will die anyway, the state fears.

So on Tuesday, Kansas suspended catch limits and size rules for pulling catfish, crappies, bass, bluegills and any other fish you find in the rapidly dwindling reservoir about 15 miles west of Hays.

It’s called a public fish salvage, and it took effect immediately.

“You just as well take what you can get,” said Bryan Sowards, director of the fisheries division at the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. When the lake finally recovers, whenever that is, “we’re pretty much going to restart at that point with new stocking from our hatcheries.”

The same hideous drought that’s baking farmland across western Kansas has the Big Creek flowing so low that Ellis City Lake — which normally covers about 30 acres — can’t get the water recharge it needs.

“Continued dry weather may lead to significant fish losses in the near future,” the department announced. “The public may collect any remaining fish in the designated waterbody by any legal methods, as well as by hand, dip net, or seine.”

The temporary free-for-all applies until officials pull down signs about the public fish salvage that they’ve posted around the water.

The same rules apply to Warren Stone Memorial Lake, a much smaller body (2 acres) about half an hour south of Hays. But Sowards says this tiny lake dries up “all the time.”

A bigger pool like the Ellis City reservoir doesn’t dry up as easily, but it happens. Sowards estimates bad-enough droughts strike more than once per decade. The severe drought that struck Kansas a decade ago was particularly rough.

“It’s not nearly as bad as it was then,” he said.

When water gets too low, as at the two lakes right now, fish burn through the remaining oxygen fast and start dying.

Some fish may survive, Sowards said, “but you’ll have enough die to where you’d rather have the public (get) in there to harvest them.”

Problems can also happen when heat and dwindling lake levels lead to fish getting caught between two unlivable layers of water.

“Fish are ‘squeezed,’” said Ted Harris, a research professor at the Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research at the University of Kansas, “between really hot water (at the surface) and water without oxygen (at the bottom).”

Earlier this month, the National Weather Service said Hays was experiencing its 11th driest summer.

The drought has stunted and shriveled crops across western Kansas, contributing to the current steep prices for corn and forcing cattle and ethanol companies to haul grain by rail from places like Iowa, Illinois and Ohio.

The National Drought Mitigation Center predicts that the dry conditions afflicting the region will continue through the end of the year.

Sowards said Kansas also sometimes announces public fish salvages when the state plans renovations or other maintenance that require lowering the water levels. Sometimes the state does that to clear out invasive species, such as non-native common carp that wreak havoc on aquatic ecosystems.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen covers the environment for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @celia_LJ or email her at celia (at) kcur (dot) org.

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.

Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.

See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-09-28/grab-all-the-fish-you-want-while-theyre-still-alive-this-kansas-lake-is-drying-up