With retention vote looming, KS chief justice rebukes political efforts to oust judges
Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Marla Luckert sharply criticized politically motivated efforts to oust judges at an Overland Park forum Thursday.
Luckert appeared alongside Justices Evelyn Wilson and Melissa Standridge at Johnson County Community College. In November, voters will decide whether to retain all three judges as well as Justices Dan Biles, K.J. Wall and Caleb Stegall.
Luckert forcefully rebutted the notion that the justices are influenced by politics when crafting their decisions and used the event, hosted by the Mainstream Coalition, as an opportunity to tout judicial independence.
“I challenge voters to say how you can read anything I write and say that is my political opinion. It is not. It is the opinion I felt I had to reach by following the law. I may disagree with that law, I may vehemently disagree with that law, but I am going to follow the law,” she said.
No supreme court justice has been voted off the bench since Kansas moved to its current retention model in 1958. But Luckert said recent campaigns to oust judges based on specific opinions risk the stability of the court.
The court’s decisions on school finance and abortion have often angered conservatives. Earlier this year. the court’s decision to uphold GOP-drawn redistricting maps sparked backlash from Democrats.
This year, on the heels of a failed campaign to change the constitution to overturn a decision on abortion, Kansans for Life has recommended voters reject every judge on the court other than Caleb Stegall, the sole justice appointed by former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
The retention system, Luckert said, is intended to root out judges who are corrupt or making decisions based upon something other than the rule of law. Kansas justices interview before a panel of attorneys and non attorneys who then recommend three candidates to the governor. Once the governor appoints a justice they appear on the ballot for retention in the next election and every six years.
“That continuity of decision making and precedent is important to all kinds of aspects of the way our economy functions and the way our society functions and that has really led to the principle that it’s very unstabilizing to have vast changes in the law and vast changes in those who are making the decision,” said Luckert, who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Bill Graves.
Luckert said even her closest friends did not know what she personally believed about issues that could come before that.
“If I do that I find myself in a position of saying, oh I’ve staked my claim,” Luckert said.
Standridge said that position is symbolized by the black robes worn in the courtroom.
“We leave everything behind.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 11:06 AM.
