Stick to picking justices on merit, not politics

The proposed constitutional amendment to require Senate confirmation of nominees to the Kansas Supreme Court, which had a House committee hearing Wednesday, still appeals to lawmakers upset over the court’s recent actions on school finance and the death penalty. Some questions going forward, though: In light of the embarrassing pontificating and partisanship of the recent U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearings, do Kansans really want to copy that system? Doesn’t scrapping the nominating commission for a process in which the governor picks and the Senate endorses justices shove merit aside in favor of politics and cronyism? Also, given that lawmakers are putting a lot of stock in the conclusions of the recent legislative audit on school funding, which backed up the court’s ruling, why are we still talking about this payback proposal?
Posted by Rhonda Holman

4 Comments

  1. Heckler
    Posted February 10, 2006 at 8:23 am | Permalink

    Rhonda I you think that there is no political agenda involved in a governors pick for Supreme court then you are exceedingly naive. Or do you think that your readers are so naive as to just swallow and blindly regurjitate your screams of “partisanship!!”

    Court picks have become partisan because of outrageous court decisions by liberal justices at all levels of the judiciary. Decisions like Kelo where justices just make up the law based on their own agenda. Get real.

  2. CrusaderX
    Posted February 10, 2006 at 12:35 pm | Permalink

    Rhonda,God I hope Kansans don’t adopt that system! Just look at the political circus that was the Alito hearings! Instead of actually questioning him on judicial philosophies which was the whole friggin point of the hearings, Fire-breathing-character-assassin Ted Kennedy uses his air time to lead the charge on everything republican. And what the hell was with that whole “I’m sorry you had to be here and take this” garbage from that South Carolina senator? Was that supposed to make me actually feel SORRY for Alito? God! mix politicians and microphones and all you get is a bully pulpit.

  3. Marvin Reality
    Posted February 10, 2006 at 2:20 pm | Permalink

    Rhonda you are just getting worse as time goes by.

    Since when is a Governor picking a judge not political?

    Just goes to show how out of touch you and your newspaper are or does it show how biased you really are?

    Perhaps it is time for you to retire you cannot seem to handle it any more.

  4. Marty Venick
    Posted February 11, 2006 at 6:24 pm | Permalink

    Wow, you guys are being really mean to Rhonda! You should be more understanding of a person who writes but does little research. She failed to check the resumes of judges in states who are appointed and then compare them to judges in states like ours. It’s night and day. She fails to understand that appointment by the governor and senate confirmation puts accountability into the system because both parties are elected by us. And last, had she even attempted to research this she would have pointed out that there is something wrong with a system where attorneys that must appear before the judges that are applying are the ones doing the nominating. Talk about corrupt! Nope, no research; just more blame heaped on the GOP for being out of touch and dumb. Makes me wonder if she researched the election data last year. Had she, she would have found that Kansans are conservative and their leaders are acting accordingly.