This article explains the links between the recent bills attacking the courts and their school finance decisions.
“After the state Supreme Court ordered the state to spend more on poorer school districts last March, the Kansas Legislature voted to strip the top court of some of its administrative authority, including the power to appoint chief judges in the state’s 31 district courts. Republicans claimed the move was unrelated to the education finance issue, but Democrats, judicial watchdogs, and education advocates saw it as punishment for the schools case. ‘Nobody will admit it, but I have no doubt that it was to pay the court back for the school finance ruling,’ says Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly. A state appeals court judge challenged the new law as an unconstitutional power grab—locking the Legislature and the courts in a battle over control of the state judicial system. That case is currently before a the same Kansas district court also determining the school finance issue.
“Now, Brownback’s allies in the Legislature are using all the tools in their arsenal to sway the courts to rule their way on both the administrative power case and the school finance issue. Last month, conservative lawmakers drafted a budget for the state courts—taking the unusual step of separating the courts from the rest of the state budget—that ties funding for the entire Kansas court system to the outcome of the administrative authority case before the district court. The judicial budget includes a self-destruct button that would wipe out all funding for the state courts if any court halts the 2014 law reducing the Supreme Court’s authority or finds it unconstitutional…
“‘Basically, lawmakers are attempting to extort Supreme Court justices to rule in the Legislature’s favor or be shut down,’ the Kansas City Star editorialized, adding that conservative lawmakers’ ‘willingness to deprive Kansas citizens of a working court process is shocking.’
“Conservatives’ efforts to undermine the state Supreme Court haven’t stopped there. Currently, a nominating commission selects candidates for the Supreme Court and the governor picks justices from that pool. But in his State of the State address in January, Brownback said the current system was undemocratic and called for the Legislature either to replace it with partisan judicial elections or to give the governor the authority to appoint judges. Resolutions to make both changes via constitutional amendment have been introduced in the Legislature, where they need a two-thirds vote, followed by a referendum. Other proposed resolutions aimed at declawing the court include making judges subject to recall elections and allowing them to be ousted if just a third of voters opt not to retain them.
“But Brownback’s allies have thus far failed to muster the supermajority needed to change the constitution, even though Republicans hold well more than two-thirds of both chambers. (Brownback’s tax cuts have deeply divided the Legislature’s overwhelming Republican majority, and a contingent of moderate GOPers believe the cuts are unsustainable—and Brownback’s work to oust Republican moderates in the 2012 elections didn’t earn him any affection from the party’s more moderate flank either.) So conservatives have floated a number of speedier statutory changes to bring more supportive justices to the bench. One bill would lower the retirement age to create vacancies sooner; another would split the court into two separate civil and criminal courts, which would create more vacancies that Brownback could fill; and a third would expand the grounds for impeachment of a Supreme Court justice to include such ambiguous misdeeds as ‘attempting to subvert fundamental laws and introduce arbitrary power,’ ‘attempting to usurp the power of the legislative or executive branch of government,’ and ‘failure to adequately supervise subordinate employees.’
“‘Basically, those are additional threats that are looming over the court’s head,” says [Ryan] Wright, the advocate for an nonpartisan judiciary, since the high court will soon revisit the issue. In the meantime, Kansas conservatives are doing all they can to deter the justices from increasing school funding—even if it means defunding or reshaping the court to get their way.”
Read more here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/final-front-sam-brownbacks-battle-control-kansas