Kansas voters reject GOP-backed measure to directly elect state Supreme Court justices
The rejected amendment would have let Kansans elect Supreme Court justices directly and replaced a merit-based nomination system in place since 1958.
- On Tuesday, Kansas voters rejected a GOP-backed constitutional amendment to replace the merit-based Supreme Court nomination system with direct statewide elections, according to the Associated Press.
- For nearly 70 years, Kansas has used a merit-based system where a nine-member Supreme Court Nominating Commission screens applicants for the governor to appoint, with justices serving six-year terms.
- Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach spearheaded the amendment, citing the 2019 abortion ruling, while Former Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss warned elections could compromise judicial integrity by inviting donor influence.
- Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, said, "We believed Kansans four years ago when they voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion rights in the state constitution." Kansas National Education Association President Sherri Schwanz praised educators who mobilized to defend schools.
- The result preserves the nearly 70-year-old merit-based selection framework, halting conservative attempts to reshape the Supreme Court's ideological direction through electoral pressure on judicial candidates.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Kansas votes to keep politics out of its highest court
Bianna Golodryga speaks to former Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss about why voters rejected a proposal to elect the state’s highest court justices and what the result says about judicial independence.
Kansas Voters Reject Anti-Abortion Ballot Measure
The New York Times reports: Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure that would have required state Supreme Court justices to be popularly elected rather than appointed by the governor, dealing another setback to Republican lawmakers trying to overturn a decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. That ruling in 2019 has preserved Kansas as a significant abortion provider for women in a wide swath of middle-American s…
Translated by Claudia Amaro On Tuesday, Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to amend the state constitution and elect the judges of the Kansas Supreme Court, thus thwarting a long-awaited plan by Republicans, who...
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