Politicizing courts

To the editor:

Here’s one you might want to clip and put on your refrigerator door, until August, 2026. Yes, a year and a half from now. People have short memories.

How would you like Kansas Supreme Court justices to be chosen by election?

An election would be a Wild West affair, influenced by billionaires from outside the state like the unelected South African immigrant who is now running the White House, randomly cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs, and wrecking the country like a bull in a china shop.

That just happened in Wisconsin. In an election for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, Elon Musk came in and spent $20 million to try to influence the election. He openly paid two people $1 million each to buy their vote.

It didn’t work. But it took the serious process of choosing legal scholars and turned it into a free-for-all circus.

That’s what the geniuses in the Kansas Legislature want to do here.

Right now, we have a process that is largely insulated from politics.

The State Bar Association, members of the profession, who know who good and bad lawyers and judges are, form part of a commission. Members of the public form the other part. This commission examines and then recommends three candidates, from which the governor chooses one.

The geniuses up in Topeka think it’s a bad idea to have a merit-based process shielded from the corruption of politics and outside money.

So, they passed a bill to put a question on the ballot about whether to elect Supreme Court justices. This will be a state constitutional amendment.

The real reason is that members of the majority in the Legislature want to control everything. They already have a super-majority, able to override the governor’s vetoes.

The fact that the governor is in the opposition party causes steam to blast out of their ears.

They continually try to pass bills to limit the governor’s power. When questions about these bills are brought before the Kansas Supreme Court and the court rules against the Legislature, members of the majority blow their stacks.

They’ve tried to change laws with constitutional amendments, and the people have rejected them by wide margins.

So, now what they want to throw out the Supreme Court justices so new ones can rule as the Legislature tells them.

The Legislature will whine and complain that the public has no role in choosing justices, even though justices repeatedly face retention votes.

Don’t be fooled by this move. Vote against this amendment. But, oh, it won’t be until the August primary in 2026. Why August? Why not the November general election, when the most people vote?

You guessed it. Because they know fewer Democrats will vote in the primary. Sneaky, but effective.

So, clip this letter and tack it on the fridge. And don’t forget to vote against the sneaky move in August, 2026, unless you want to see Elon Musk run ads on TV every five minutes in Kansas.

Brian D. Stucky, Goessel