The Kansas House is debating again whether the state needs to change how it chooses its Kansas Supreme Court justices and Kansas Court of Appeals judges to include a federal-style Senate confirmation. Champions of change say the current system is political. But “we never talk about politics in those meetings. It just doesn’t come up,” said Wichita attorney Richard Hite, who chairs the nine-member nominating commission that chooses three nominees based on merit for the governor’s final decision.
To the idea that a Senate confirmation would be political, as Congress unerringly demonstrates, Alan Cobb of the Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity said: “This would be the politics of the people, versus politics of the lawyers.”
But surely the people realize that the state’s top courts need to be staffed by the top lawyers in the state, not by politicians.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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