Groups Urge Kansas Governor to Repeal Law Jeopardizing Fair Courts
The Brennan Center sent a letter to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback urging him to repeal a law that strips the state’s Supreme Court of the power to select local judges and control over court budgets.
The Brennan Center for Justice, along with the Kansas Values Institute and Kansans for Fair Courts, sent a letter to Governor Sam Brownback and state leaders urging the repeal of a recent law that strips Kansas Supreme Court of the power to select local judges and of control over court budgets. According to the groups, the law threatens the constitutional authority of Kansas’s Supreme Court to administer a unified court and endangers the balance between the legislative and judicial branches under the separation-of-powers doctrine. Failure to repeal the law would leave the state open to a legal challenge, the letter said.
The law, passed in April, is the state legislature’s latest attempt to politicize the court after an attempt last year to change judicial selection in the state.