Awfully long gap between nomination and oath-taking

On today’s Opinion pages, Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, questions the timing of Eric Rosen’s swearing-in as a justice on the Kansas Supreme Court. Now a Shawnee County District Court judge, Rosen was named to the seat by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in July. But he won’t take his oath until mid-November, just late enough to avoid a retention election next year — the first such statewide vote since the court came under such heavy criticism for its death penalty and school finance rulings. “The chief administrative judge in Shawnee County did request that Rosen stay on the District Court through the end of October, but this does not explain why Rosen needs to delay taking his seat on the Supreme Court until mid-November,” Landwehr notes. It does make you wonder, though buying Landwehr’s suspicion means concluding that Rosen and Sebelius are lying about the timing.
Posted by Rhonda Holman