President's Message
| Publication year | 2010 |
| Pages | 06 |
From the President Timothy M. O’Brien
A Few Items of Importance
A Few Items of Importance
Attacks on the Judiciary
We are all obligated to recognize and respond to unfounded attacks on our judges and our justice system. Those attacks, whether motivated by politics or otherwise, come in many forms and are often perceived differently by different people. I have been meeting and corresponding with a number of elected district judges who are understandably proud of the great work they do to find and administer justice. Some took offense to the rhetoric employed by those defending the merit selection system in a recent ballot proposal in Johnson County.
The passion exhibited by those on both sides of that issue – those seeking to retain merit selection and those seeking to move to partisan elections – was high. As in too many political campaigns, the language and symbols used by both sides often included sharp-edged hyperbole and oversimplistic sound bites and images.
Although the Kansas Bar Association (KBA) has long-supported merit selection of judges, we had no involvement in that local campaign. In hindsight, some of the political tactics used by those seeking to keep merit selection in Johnson County could reasonably offend elected judges. That is regrettable and any offense was unintentional.
The KBA has been poised to defend individual judges from unfair attacks. Although as an organization, the KBA had not focused on referendum campaigns like the one in Johnson County, I promise that we will be more sensitive to campaign language used by all sides, whether in retention campaigns, individual election campaigns, or referenda. We will, and should, respond when appropriate to advocate the deserved respect for our excellent Kansas judges, courts, and legal system.
Apparently, we will need to be especially vigilant this year in monitoring a political campaign aimed at unseating one or more justices of our Supreme Court. We all have the right to exercise our opinions and to cast our individual votes. I believe we have a responsibility, however, as a profession and individual lawyers, to constantly remind our friends and neighbors that judges are bound to follow the law, not the political whims of the day. If there are unfair, misleading, or personal attacks, the KBA will respond.
Work-Life Balance
In her February column, Young...
To continue reading
Request your trial