From the Advocate: a Foreward to Judicial Selection Testimony

• Publication year: 2019
• Pages: 32
• Citation: Vol. 88 No. 10 Pg. 32

From the Advocate: A Foreward to Judicial Selection Testimony No. 88 J. Kan. Bar Assn 10, 32 (2019) Kansas Bar Journal December, 2019

November, 2019

From

The Advocate

Joseph N. Molina III serves as the director of legislative services for the Kansas Bar Association. Prior to joining the KBA, he was chief legal counsel for the Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority and served as assistant attorney general, acting as chief of the Kansas No-Call Act. Molina earned a B.A. in political science, philosophy, and economics from Eastern Oregon University and a J.D. from Washburn University School of Law.

jmolina@ksbar.org

On October 1, 2019, eleven members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committee met over two days to discuss abortion rights, caps on noneconomic damages and changes to judicial selection. While seemingly separate and distinct issues, these three controversial topics have the Kansas Supreme Court as its nexus. Earlier this year the Kansas Supreme Court found a constitutional right to an abortion in Hodes & Nauser, MDs v. Schmidt. The court also invalidated the statute that caps noneconomic damages in Hilburn v. Enerpipe LTD.

The KBA provided testimony in support of the current method for selecting Kansas Supreme Court Justices. Jim Robinson, a lawyer with the Wichita firm of Hite Manning, represented the KBA at the hearing and provided the committee with its most significant scholarly support for merit selection. (The full text of Robinson's testimony follows this foreword in this issue of The Journal of the Kansas Bar Association.) The KBA took no other position at the hearing. The committee recommended that the issue be studied further in the 2020 session.

To be clear, altering judicial selection in Kansas remains a significant issue. Currently, SCR 1610, which would move Kansas to a Governor appoint/Senate confirm model, is available to the Committee of the Whole. However, this is merely the latest attempt to change how judges are selected in Kansas. Since 2011, there have been 19 proposals to alter merit selection in Kansas. The proposals run the gamut, but include the Federal Model, direct elections, direct partisan elections, altering the nominating commission, including lifetime appointment, including the Kansas Court of Appeals and, in one instance, allowing the Kansas House to select nominees.

Attempts by the Kansas Legislature to Change the Judicial Selection Process 2011 - 2019

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