Senate rejects court nominee because he was public defender assigned to child-porn case
In a move the Gov. Laura Kelly is calling “political games,” the Kansas Senate has rejected her latest nominee for the state Court of Appeals.
The Senate voted down Kelly’s nomination of Carl Folsom III, a longtime state and federal public defender, largely because of a case where he represented a man convicted of child pornography possession.
Folsom, a 2005 graduate of University of Kansas School of Law, has worked as a lawyer in the Kansas Appellate Defender’s Office, which argues cases before the Courts of Appeals and the state Supreme Court. He’s also worked in private practice and served as an assistant public defender in federal courts in Oklahoma and Topeka.
But that didn’t impress Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican who serves on the Judiciary Committee and led the charge against Folsom’s nomination.
“His focus has been very narrow, he’s been a public defender,” Baumgardner said.
Baumgardner criticized Folsom for arguing a federal court appeal in 2014 seeking reduction of a 10-year sentence for Jeffrey Morrison, an Oklahoma man convicted of possessing child pornography.
“When the FBI concluded their investigation, they found more than 20,000 images on this individual’s (Morrison’s) computer — pornographic images of girls from the age of five to 15, images that were so horrific they included penetration,” Baumgardner said.
That line of attack drew a heated response from Sen. Vic Miller, a retired judge from Topeka, who pointed out that as a public defender, Folsom doesn’t choose who he represents.
“He is assigned clients,” Miller said. “He doesn’t get a chance to say ‘That leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I choose not to represent that person.’”
Miller said Folsom is bound by oath and the Constitution to do his best to represent those clients and ensure that even “the worst of the worst” get a fair trial.
“He is not the client and he possesses none of transgressions of those he might happen to represent,” Miller said. “It is his job.”
More senators voted for Folsom than against him, 18-17. But five were absent from Wednesday’s special session and it takes 21 votes in the 40-member Senate to approve a nomination.
In an impromptu Capitol appearance with Folsom after the vote, Kelly criticized the Senate for playing politics.
She praised Folsom’s experience as a lawyer and a law school instructor at KU.
“Even some people in the Court of Appeals would say ‘He’s got more experience than me,’” Kelly said. “To let him become the collateral damage for political games is absolutely wrong. The Legislature needs to think long and hard about what they just did.”
After the vote, Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, issued a statement saying “The nominee donated to Governor Kelly’s campaign, which is indicative of his political ideology.”
She also accused Kelly of hypocrisy for voting against the Court of Appeals nomination of Caleb Stegall in 2013.
Stegall was the first nominee for a seat on the court after the Republican-controlled Legislature and then-Gov. Sam Brownback changed the rules to require Senate confirmation of appellate nominees.
Stegall, who was Brownback’s office lawyer when he was nominated for the appellate court, was later promoted by Brownback to the Kansas Supreme Court.
Contributing: Jonathan Shorman of The Wichita Eagle
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Senate rejects court nominee because he was public defender assigned to child-porn case."
