Dear Editor,
By law, eligibility to sit on the Kansas Supreme Court does not actually require judicial experience; in fact, two sitting justices, Lawton Nuss and Dan Biles, lacked any prior judicial experience.
Those non-judge nominees were put on a slate for Governors Bill Graves and Kathleen Sebelius by the Judicial Nominating Commission. Graves chose his hometown friend, Nuss, and Sebelius, her trusted advisor, Biles.
The Judicial Nominating Commission has nine members, five of whom are attorneys. It selects the slate of three nominees from which the Governor picks a finalist. The governors hands are tied, though, because if he objects to the entire slate, the Supreme Court Chief Justice proceeds to pick the finalist.
Gov. Brownback cannot “pack the Kansas Supreme Court, because he cannot dictate which names are sent him. Rather, the Court has already been packed by the attorney majority on the Judicial Nominating Commission, chosen by a few thousand lawyers. And it shows!
The rulings of the majority of the state Supreme Court increasingly do not reflect our Kansas values and Constitution. Voters have the duty to remove activist judges on Nov. 8th.
Vote “NO” on retaining justices Beier, Biles, Nuss, and Luckert on the Kansas Supreme Court. On the Kansas Court of Appeals, vote “NO” on retaining justices Leben, Pierron, Atcheson, and Arnold-Burger.
Sharon McGinness
Larned