TheChat: Kansas Supreme Court judges appear dubious over state school funding claims

Here we go.

▪ “At what point does this process have to stop? How many years do we operate unconstitutionally before we say, you know, the music’s got to stop and we’ve got to quit dancing?” — Kansas Supreme Court Judge Dan Biles reacting to a comment from a state lawyer who said the Legislature’s new school finance law was intended to be a one-year funding solution.

Lawyer Steve McAllister, the state solicitor general, said lawmakers plan to revisit the law next year. The response appeared to frustrate Biles, who said school equity funding had been under litigation for more than five years, and the state had lost several times.

▪ “Let's go to work.” — Delrish Moss, the first African American police chief in Ferguson, Mo., at his swearing-in ceremony.

Moss said job one is bringing nobility back to police work. “If you work hard, if you stay honest and committed, if you maintain respect for the community and do your job well, we will get along just fine,” he said, addressing the police officers in attendance.

▪ “If you really want ethics reform and you want to quit pretending that you’re not influenced, you have to put campaign contribution limits back on that Missouri voters approved.” — Missouri House Minority Leader Jake Hummel on ethics reform in the Statehouse.

That’s not happening this session because Republicans oppose the idea. A citizen-led referendum, though, might result in a vote later this year on the idea. If it gets on the ballot, here’s betting that it’ll pass overwhelmingly.

▪ “I think I could have.” — Donald Trump talking to radio man Howard Stern shortly after Princess Diana’s death in 1997 when Stern asked, “You could’ve gotten her, right?”

Trump’s past crude talk about sex and women is now up for debate as he races toward the GOP presidential nomination.