Six Kansas Supreme Court justices are on the November ballot. Vote yes on all of them

Kansas voters will be asked in November if they want to keep six of the state’s seven Supreme Court justices on the bench.

The answer should be unequivocally yes, for all six.

Some of those six are likely to be targeted by activists still smarting from the court’s 2019 decision embracing abortion rights, and stung further by the voters’ overwhelming endorsement of it on Aug. 2. But voters should not allow ideologues to achieve in November what they could not achieve in August.

Removing judges either as punishment for specific rulings or just because another judge’s ideology might be more to your liking is wrong. It destroys the independence of the court and in this case would likely plunge the state into another bitter argument over abortion.

Our strong recommendation to retain all six justices on November’s ballot goes beyond the abortion question, though. Three of the justices up for retention — Evelyn Wilson, Keynen Wall and Melissa Standridge — were appointed after the 2019 abortion decision and took no part in it.

Chief Justice Marla Luckert and Justice Daniel Biles were part of the per curiam opinion endorsing a fundamental right to abortion in Kansas. The sixth justice on the retention ballot, Caleb Stegall, wrote a blistering dissent opposing that finding.

We strongly disagreed with Stegall’s dissent, calling it rambling and inconsistent. But we didn’t suggest then, and do not believe now, that he should lose his seat on the court because of that single opinion.

Under ordinary circumstances, this would be an uncontroversial recommendation. If voters retain the justices, each will earn a six-year term. If rejected, the next governor would choose a replacement in 2023. No Kansas Supreme Court justice has ever lost his or her seat in a retention election.

That hasn’t stopped special interest groups from trying. In 2010, 2014, and again in 2016 certain justices were targeted for removal, largely for their opinions on the death penalty and school finance. In 2016, a group seeking removal of four justices spent more than $1 million.

No similar organized removal campaign has surfaced this year. Yet there are whispers that anti-abortion rights groups will ask Kansans to dismiss at least three justices in November.

That would give Derek Schmidt, if he wins the governorship, the opportunity to appoint conservative justices willing to overturn the court’s 2019 decision, allowing the Legislature to further restrict abortion.

Voters should not remove judges from office only because they disagree with an opinion. If judges apply the laws and facts consistently, in good faith, without evidence of personal or professional malfeasance, they should be retained regardless of their political views.

That’s the case here.

Because of the quirks of the calendar, and retirements, four of the six justices on the November ballot were appointed by Democratic governors. A fifth justice was appointed by Bill Graves, a moderate Republican who recently endorsed incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat.

Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, appointed Stegall. Some Republicans think the potential ideological imbalance is unfair.

There is no perfect way to select Supreme Court justices, and there are legitimate suggestions for improving the process in Kansas. Currently, the governor picks a justice from three names submitted by a panel of lawyers and non-lawyers. The Legislature is not directly involved. That system deserves review.

But court reform in Kansas is an issue for another day. For now, voters can be confident the six justices on the ballot approach their jobs with seriousness and independence. No one has offered a legitimate reason for dismissing any of them.

Kansans should vote yes, to retain all six Supreme Court justices on the ballot.

This story was originally published September 19, 2022 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Six Kansas Supreme Court justices are on the November ballot. Vote yes on all of them."