WE Blog

In an editorialthis week, we wished the Commission on Judicial Qualifications would be more open with the public about judicial ethics violations. But the frustration doesn’t stop there. Kansans have a hard time generally knowing how to judge judges — a particular problem in Sedgwick County, where we still elect District Court judges. On this point, one important new measure just passed the Legislature and was signed Friday by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; it creates a 13-member commission of lawyers and nonlawyers that will survey court users and evaluate judges’ performance based on "ability, integrity, impartiality, communication skills, professionalism, temperament and administrative capacity." That sounds like good information. Unfortunately, to avoid politicization, the results will be kept private and only for "self-improvement" for elective District Court judges, but made widely available regarding judges and justices subject to retention elections. The advocates behind this didn’t want the survey results to politicize local elections, but that means the performance evaluations can’t inform elections either. That’s not fair to voters.
Meanwhile, interestingly, conservatives are petitioning to make Johnson County’s judgeships elective, prompting The Kansas City Star to editorialize: "Voters should look very suspiciously on efforts to infuse big money and politics into the selection of judges."
Posted by Rhonda Holman