Politicizing courts

To the editor:

In last week’s article about Ty Masterson, I noticed that he failed to mention a cushy job provided for him by the Koch Collaborative as director of GoCreate at Wichita State University after his bankruptcy.

This job paid him $155,250 in 2024 plus a raise from $44,000 to $88,000 for House and Senate members in Topeka.

Masterson is in the pocket of both the Koch Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, which seek to influence Kansas and federal policies to favor them.

Masterson is pushing for the election of Supreme Court judges instead of present merit-based judicial selection by a rigorous and transparent system.

The change to the current judicial selection process was caused by the “Triple Play” scandal of 1957.

Governor Fred Hall, defeated for re-election, was to resign before his term ended, and his lieutenant governor was to appoint him to replace a retiring Supreme Court justice.

In 2024, dark money spent in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race made it the most expensive race ever, with more than $90 million spent to influence future court decisions.

Elon Musk contributed $2 million to this race in addition to what his political action committees contributed.

Do the people of Kansas, including Marion County, want to hand future decisions over to a Supreme Court chosen by dark money spent to elect and influence future judges?

Or do we want to continue using the present merit system of choosing judges, which has worked for Republican and Democrat governors since the 1958 constitutional amendment?

Barbara Tajchman
Marion County Lake