Most of the criticism of the Kansas Supreme Court has been political. Last week found some that was geographical, with the Johnson County Sun’s opinion page editor, Bob Sigman, lamenting that the state’s most populous county does not have a candidate among the top three nominees for the latest opening on the court. Noting that only one “bona fide” Johnson Countian has ever served on the court and that four county residents were among the 14 applicants this time, Sigman said, “Surely no other place in the state has a superior talent pool — judges and lawyers — than Johnson County.” He added: “On an ideal, balanced court, it should be appropriate for the most heavily populated county in the state to have a place at the table.” The final three, by the way, are former Wichitan Tom Malone, a member of the Kansas Court of Appeals since 2003, as well as Court of Appeals Judge Lee Johnson, who formerly practiced law in Caldwell in Sumner County, and Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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19 Comments
If I remember right, I believe all but one Supreme Court Justices are from Topeka.
Sigman is a very poor excuse for an editorialist.
Sigman seems to think the KS Supreme Court should be represented by population.That is what the legislature is for. I suspect that he, like this newspaper, would like Lib judges who legislate from the bench.If one wishes to make law, be a legislator, not a judge.
My suggestion to the JoCo folks; if you want “representation” on the appellate courts, then you should have some of the eminent attorneys and jurists located in your fair county decide on a candidate for an opening, and submit his/her name to the nominating commission for consideration.
Without Johnson County, Kansas’s state-aggregate metrics in college-degree-attainment and household income would be among the bottom-10 states, and possibly among the bottom-5 states for whites.
There was a really good televised economic conference hosted here last winter. Two KU economists showed telling data: Johnson County not only outperformed the national average in household income 30 years ago, it has enlarged the differential. Wichita was slightly above national average 30 years ago, but is now below. Excluding these two population centers, the rest of Kansas was below national average, and is now farther below national average.
I’d rather see more Supreme Court justices from “The New Kansas” that represents a modern economy, than from “The Old Kansas” that represents out-of-state-controlled satellite-colonialism, whose masters are happy to suck this state dry, and don’t give a whit about this state’s hard-working populace’s welfare.
Heartlander,
Go back to California and do some hippie hugging if you don’t like Kansas.
Your rhetoric is getting old.
heart, so would I, so long as the Justice(s) are fully qualified, etc.
I think you have, knowingly or otherwise, hit on something. During the contentious court hearing and legislative sessions dealing with the school finance issue, JoCo was quite loud in its protests over the way the finance bill was designed; bluntly, it (the new formula) provided little benefit to the JoCo schools, as they are not facing problems similar to those in Wichita, Topeka, et al. Thus, the additional funding for meeting the costs of educating “high risk” students, among other things, wasn’t going to flow their way in any appreciable measure.
I recall that at one time, JoCo approached the legislature for statutory authority to levy an additional sales tax to benefit the local schools “up there”, much like Wichita/Sedgwick County did for the arena; but, they (JoCo) were rebuffed, IIRC. I believe, from less than perfect memory, the legislature didn’t want to provide them with that authority, in light of Judge Bullock’s opinion in Montoy, which had just been issued and was headed for appeal. Thus, the need for a friendly forum, to hold that revenues raised from local efforts to benefit their schools did not become a part of “state” funding for all schools.
I don’t know a lot about this issue. But since JM did not let that stop him, I won’t let it stop me.
Keep saying that stuff JM!
I was born in Kansas but I sure as hell aint gonna die in this pit. Keep up attitudes like yours and you and the prairie dogs will be the only population in this wasteland.
I may move there or to Washington state in a few years. But I’m here now, and have reasonable cause, as well as the right to speak. People who’ve been reading my posts for some time often agree with some of what I say, and disagree with some of what I say.
Whether I leave Kansas or not is a small matter. It was a small matter when my mothers’ parents left Iowa and southern Illinois for California.
Yet, they were part of a larger matter. When I grew up, I met a lot of children of Dust Bowl refugees. The Dust Bowl was preventable. Then-known anti-erosion tillage methods, tree windbreaks, and diesel-powered ground-water pumping were well established elsewhere, but nobody taught Kansans how to do these things, nor provided funding for them.
In the 1990-2000 censuses, 60 of Kansas’s 105 counties lost population. I’m going to presume you can do basic math, like figuring out percentages? What does the percentage of Kansas counties losing population mean to you? Tell the readers here. I mean it: when I finish my statements, you will have the podium to say all you want to say on this matter.
I would posit that Kansans would like to have an economy that didn’t include widespread implosion. If you disagree, tell the readers why you disagree, to wit either widespread depopulation doesn’t equate to implosion, or else why widespread depopulation, if it does equate to implosion, is a GOOD thing for displaced rural Kansans.
I haven’t done a lot for Kansas. I admit it. But my spouse has, and probably some of you readers know people whose lives she has saved. So we are here for her to give Kansans life-saving services that Kansas has severe difficulty attracting. Most of her patients aren’t prominent, they are only known to their families, friends and coworkers. Little Kansans.
JM, what have you done to help ordinary “little Kansans”? Is that your mission in life? What is your mission?
The census data tell us a lot. A lot of native Kansans are leaving Kansas, because they see no good future here for them. You can tell me to get out. Fine. Are you telling Kansas natives to get out? Not fine. For many of them, one of life’s deepest rewards is living among their families and friends, not being displaced elsewhere. What are you doing to make it possible for them to stay and raise their own families here?
PS. My last post was directed specifically to JM. I didn’t make that clear at the outset.
VT, I’m not a lawyer. If Wichita had a law school, there’s a decent chance I would have a J.D. today. (I’m a little too wizened to have participated in unaccredited/unaccreditable experiment performed here early in this decade. I understood, for example, that without a university partner, a new law school’s chance of ABA approval was basically zero.)
But in any event, I’ve spent some time in law libraries, and know how to do some research. I learned that Kansas business law is modeled after Delaware’s. (Am I mistaken here?) Delaware is the nominal charter state for a lot of corporations, whose operating headquarters are elsewhere. As I have interpreted matters, big corporations (excluding DuPont, a genuine Delaware-based corporation) exploited the opportunity to escape legal burdens in their actual main states of operation-kind of like an earlier version of Bermuda registration.
Why did Kansas adopt Delaware business laws? Call me a skeptic, but I don’t think it was to benefit most Kansans any more than Delaware business law was enacted to benefit most Delawarans.
heart, having discussed the issue you raise with a person who was then part of the Legislature many years ago, I offer the following (memory affected, as always, by the vicissitudes of time):
The goal was to encourage corporate formation in Kansas, much as Delaware; and, to modernize the then-existing antiquted and cumbersome corporate code without adopting the uniform statute, or doing a lot of research and statutory writing. You may not be aware of this, but this represents an “easy” way to raise revenue through the annual franchise fee a domestic (i.e., incorporated in Kansas) corporation, or a foreign corporation (i.e., incorporated in a state other than Kansas) registered to do business in Kansas pays the Secretary of State.
Additionally, a corporation doing business in Kansas, whether domestic or foreign, pays Kansas Income Taxes on its earnings, as determined under the appropriate provisions of our income tax statutes.
The genius behind this move was that there existed a well-established body of case law, from the Delaware courts, interpreting the Delaware law, which could easily be “imported” by the Kansas courts, shortening the learning curve, and providing a legal basis for reliance by such corporations. Thus, by “stealing” the Delaware law, it was hoped to create an immediate boon, with companies who, for whatever reason, desired the assurances of the Delaware law, but didn’t want to pay the (at the time, at least) more onerous fees and taxes imposed by the State of Delaware.
It didn’t work out as contemplated, needless to say; but as a practitioner who handles small business clients, it sure makes my job easier in formation of entities.
I can tell you about a fake Kansas-registered PC that doesn’t pay any income taxes, because all its income goes to a “foreign” (another state) corporation. The foreign general corporation had no legal capacity to form a professional corporation in Kansas, as a subsidiary, so it created a complete illusion of local professionally licensed ownership. How do I know? Because my spouse was nominal “president” and “sole shareholder”, successor to a phony revenue-transfer and control of business operations contract signed by another Kansas-licensed professional, who was at all times actually an employee of the out-of-state general corporation, as was my spouse. In SEC filings and in annual shareholders reports, the foreign corporation stated that it OWNED medical practices in many states, like Kansas, but not in its home state, Florida, that required licensed-physician ownership.
I mean, it admitted that it owned medical practices in Florida, Missouri and other open-ownership states, but also, for the purpose of encouraging public shareholder investment, included statements of ownership and revenues from states in which it could not legally operate. In the latter states, it used phony straw-man PCs that the various secretaries of states failed to investigate. So the Kansas Department of Revenue has lost tens of millions of dollars.
heart. I’m sure you’re correct on that; but Kansas does receive its “franchise fee” from the PC.
I usually refrain from commenting on these things, but someone did a great job in setting this up. However, I’m sure the KDOR would like its pound of flesh, should there be any Kansas taxable income.
Heartlander,
My family came into what was to become NorthEast Kansas in 1856. I think they have done quite a bit in the past 150 years.
Johnson County is like an occupying power in the legislature. They want all the highway construction, all the money for schools, everything for themselves.They aren’t REAL Kansans–just a bunch of expatriate Missouri tax dodgers.Real Kansans are able to pull for each other…and outside of the Wichita delegation, there are plenty of them on both sides of the aisle in the legislature.The courts work as well as they do because the nominating commission does an outstanding job of finding candidates with the same open mindset.
mr c, agree with your characterization of JoCo residents, and your thoughts on the nominating commission, which, IMHO, generally does a great job.
Regarding Johnson County, gentlemen, it is a great part of our state and a treasure for Kansas. Although raised in Pratt, I lived in Johnson County for some 30 years. Some people said I knew more people in the K.C. metropolitan area than anyone else … I have to admit that was from a K.C. mafia member, also from a high local government official, and from a top commercial real estate broker. I don’t know which I would trust the most.
I don’t have time now to discuss the merits of Johnson County, other than they are smart enough NOT to build an unwanted white elephant arena at county taxpayers expense. Johnson County commissioners would be booted out of office if they tried that.My main point here is that I found many, many people living in Johnson County as being, like me, from small agricultural villages of Kansas. Actually similar to the situation here in Wichita. I guess people who don’t want to be in agriculture industry move on to the larger cities.
The Eagle’s opening paragraph mentions Judge Robert Fairchild from Johnson County. If I recall his background, I believe he and his family comes from Kingman.As I think about our former Kansas governors, most of whom I have at least met from George Docking senior to the present, except the three Democrats — many came from small Kansas communities with the exception of our present governor from Ohio.
JWink