Judicial Selection, by Stephen Ware, a law professor at KU, in Lawrence, Kansas.
Showing posts with label school funding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school funding. Show all posts
Monday, March 30, 2015
NY Times Connects Kansas School Funding with Kansas Judicial Selection
Unfortunately, the Times ("Under the current system, the governor chooses from three nominees put forth by a nine-member committee that includes lawyers and appointees of the governor") does not say who selects those lawyers, which is the problem with the current Kansas Supreme Court selection process.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Kansas Supreme Court Selection Reform and School Finance
This article in the Wichita Eagle by Bryan Lowry is one of the better news stories on the Kansas Supreme Court selection process because it describes that process accurately "The current system relies on a nine-member commission to choose nominees, with four of those members appointed by the governor and the other five selected by a vote of the state’s practice attorneys" rather than (as many lower quality articles say) "a non-partisan commission of attorneys and non-attorneys."
Bryan Lowry also rightly refrains from using the propaganda phrase "merit selection" to describe the current system.
Bryan Lowry also rightly refrains from using the propaganda phrase "merit selection" to describe the current system.
Friday, January 31, 2014
School Funding and the Washington State Supreme Court
I've previously noted that the state supreme court's school funding decision frequently comes up in Kansas debates over judicial selection. The same is apparently true in Washington State. The Olympia Report says:
Just as importantly, Baumgartner believes it’s time to send a message to the court, which ruled two years ago in the McCleary case that the Legislature wasn’t spending enough money on K-12 education and ordered it to spend more. While many lawmakers might have agreed with that conclusion, it arguably violates the principle of separation of powers for the court to dictate policy to the Legislature.
In fact, the court’s most conservative justice, James Johnson, wrote a scathing opinion earlier this month in which he called his colleagues’ actions unconstitutional.
The court also drew the ire of many last year when it overturned a ballot initiative approved by 64 percent of the voters that required a two-thirds majority in the Legislature to raise taxes.
“Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices are appointed to life terms, our justices are elected,” Baumgartner said. “And they’re as political as any of us is.”
Just as importantly, Baumgartner believes it’s time to send a message to the court, which ruled two years ago in the McCleary case that the Legislature wasn’t spending enough money on K-12 education and ordered it to spend more. While many lawmakers might have agreed with that conclusion, it arguably violates the principle of separation of powers for the court to dictate policy to the Legislature.
In fact, the court’s most conservative justice, James Johnson, wrote a scathing opinion earlier this month in which he called his colleagues’ actions unconstitutional.
The court also drew the ire of many last year when it overturned a ballot initiative approved by 64 percent of the voters that required a two-thirds majority in the Legislature to raise taxes.
“Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices are appointed to life terms, our justices are elected,” Baumgartner said. “And they’re as political as any of us is.”
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Kansas Judicial Selection in Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal op-ed by Stephen Moore, entitled "Kansas Democracy Lesson", says upcoming school funding decision "is also a test of the state Supreme Court. Four of the seven Justices were appointed by former Governor Kathleen Sebelius, of ObamaCare fame, and nominees are chosen by a commission dominated by the State Bar Association. The commission selects three potential nominees, and the Governor must choose one of the three. This gives the lawyers' guild effective control of the judiciary, creating a conflict of interest and pushing the judiciary to the left. Kansas Republicans want to change this selection process and let the Governor nominate state Supreme Court judges subject to state Senate confirmation, following the federal model. If the Justices impose an undemocratic tax increase, the GOP should move swiftly to reform judicial selection."
The commission has a majority of members selected by the state bar, not the state bar association. (To be licensed to practice law in the state, a lawyer does not have to be a member of the association.) This distinction is lost on many. For instance, I wrote an op-ed years ago for the Wichita Eagle that said "bar" but the editors changed it to "bar association".
More substantively, I'm glad to see more national attention for the problem (in my view) of the bar having disproportionate power over judicial selection by getting a special role in selecting members of the nomination commission. This has been my theme for many years and the problem is more extreme in Kansas than in any other state. I think it's a problem whether it pushes the judiciary Left or Right or neither. But politically, I think Stephen Moore is right that legislators get more interested in judicial selection when judges tell legislators to spend more money on public schools.
The commission has a majority of members selected by the state bar, not the state bar association. (To be licensed to practice law in the state, a lawyer does not have to be a member of the association.) This distinction is lost on many. For instance, I wrote an op-ed years ago for the Wichita Eagle that said "bar" but the editors changed it to "bar association".
More substantively, I'm glad to see more national attention for the problem (in my view) of the bar having disproportionate power over judicial selection by getting a special role in selecting members of the nomination commission. This has been my theme for many years and the problem is more extreme in Kansas than in any other state. I think it's a problem whether it pushes the judiciary Left or Right or neither. But politically, I think Stephen Moore is right that legislators get more interested in judicial selection when judges tell legislators to spend more money on public schools.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Top 2 Issues for Kansas Legislature Relate to Kansas Supreme Court
According to the Lawrence Journal World, the Top 2 issues in the upcoming Kansas legislative session are the Kansas Supreme Court's upcoming school funding decision and the method by which the court is selected.
I favor moving the Kansas Supreme Court (as recently occurred for the Kansas Court of Appeals) from a Missouri Plan system with a nominating commission that gives disproportionate power to the bar to a senate confirmation system modeled on the US Constitution.
I favor moving the Kansas Supreme Court (as recently occurred for the Kansas Court of Appeals) from a Missouri Plan system with a nominating commission that gives disproportionate power to the bar to a senate confirmation system modeled on the US Constitution.
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