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Former Kansas Governors Campaign To Retain Supreme Court Justices

Stephen Koranda
/
KPR
Kansas governors and the moderator of the panel. From left to right are: Moderator Reggie Robinson, Republican Bill Graves, Democrat Kathleen Sebelius, Republican Mike Hayden and Democrat John Carlin.

A bipartisan group of four former Kansas governors are campaigning on for the state’s Supreme Court justices--five of whom are are facing retention elections this fall.

The governors are on a two-day tour organized by Kansans for Fair Courts, a group campaigning on behalf of the targeted justices; judges' political activity is severely restricted. The four appeared at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce before moving on to Topeka for a similar event; they're headed to Wichita next.

The two Republican and two Democratic governors say a small number of their rulings are being used to try to unseat them. Former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius says the court is an important part of the checks and balances in state government and that keeping the justices in their jobs helps insulate the court from outside political pressure.

“That’s the way the system was founded. It has been in place for 60 years, it has worked very well, and we want to make sure it continues,” Sebelius said at a stop in Topeka on Tuesday.

Former Republican Kansas Gov. Bill Graves says the state's judicial selection system in Kansas works well.

“Someone needs to speak for them, and I think collectively, the four of us felt it was our responsibility to stand up and say to Kansans, ‘These are five individuals who deserve to be retained,’” Graves said.

The four governors are predicting dire consequences if conservatives successfully oust four state Supreme Court justices.

Former Democratic Gov. John Carlin has the harshest assessment. If the justices are kicked off the bench in November's retention election, "then the hole this [Brownback] administration has dug for us may be too deep to get out of," Carlin said during the event in Kansas City. Carlin, who was in office from 1978-1986, also called this retention fight “chaos” and said it has “an indirect effect on economic growth” in the state.

Graves, who served from 1994-2002, agreed.

“We have the potential in this election to have tremendous upheaval in the stability, the institutional knowledge, the whole character and ability in our court system in our state," he said.

Conservative groups, including Kansans for Life, the state Republican Party and the state Chamber of Commerce are committed to booting four justices off the Supreme Court: Carol Beier, Dan Biles, Marla Luckert and Chief Justice Lawton Nuss.

Also up for retention is the newest member of the court: Caleb Stegall, who was appointed by Gov. Sam Brownback. Most conservatives are asking voters to retain Stegall but get rid of the other four.

Conservatives have three main complaints about the four justices they seek to oust: the court's rulings on school finance, abortion, and the death penalty.

Family members of those murdered by the Carr brothers in Wichita in December 2000 are also campaigning to unseat four of the justices. They say the justices didn’t follow the state’s death penalty laws and made rulings that were later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The toughest rhetoric has come from the state House Republicans. In an email last week they said the four have a “shameful disregard for the law and that they’ve been scolded on numerous occasions by the U.S. Supreme Court." House Republicans also said the justices use “their own erratic and illogical method” of interpreting laws.

But Hayden strongly disagreed and said he holds the court in high regard: “While we may have some disappointment or maybe some disagreement, 99.5 percent of the time the court’s been upheld. That’s a tremendous record and it should stand on its own merit.”

Graves said this is all driven by the conservative politics of Brownback and conservatives in the Legislature. Brownback has called several times for changing the current merit selection process and the Legislature has tried, but failed, to pass a constitutional amendment dumping merit selection.

“There’s clearly energy on the other side, if you will, and we just think it’s important that there be energy in support of retaining these five justices," Graves said. "So someone has to speak for the justices and we’ve chosen to do that."

Clay Barker, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, had little reaction to Tuesday's event. He did say that Stegall has been on the high court for just a year so "he hasn't done anything to have the voters not retain him."

Stephen Koranda is the managing editor of the Kansas News Service, based at KCUR. He has nearly 20 years of experience in public media as a reporter and editor.
Sam covers education for KCUR and the Kansas News Service. Before joining the station in August 2014 he covered health and education for KCPT.