“The Kansas House on Monday approved and sent to Gov. Sam Brownback a bill funding the judicial branch for the next two years, although critics of the bill say it is blatantly unconstitutional…[T]he most controversial provision says that if the courts overturn a law enacted last year dealing with the selection of district court chief judges, then all other parts of the bill, including funding for the courts, will be considered invalid as well.
“That 2014 law stripped the Supreme Court of its long-standing authority to appoint chief judges and now requires chief judges to be elected by the other judges in the district.
“This year’s budget bill includes a ‘nonseverability’ provision that says if any part of the bill is declared invalid, then all parts of the bill, including funding for the courts, will also be invalid.
“Rep. Blaine Finch, R-Ottawa, said it was improper to tie judicial funding to the outcome of a particular case.
“’Friends, if any of you were to walk into a courtroom and offer the judge, ‘I’ll make your next house payment if you decide my case this way,’ I’ll tell you where you’d end up. It’d be in the little room with the bars, and you’d stay there for a long time. It’s called bribery,’ Finch said.
‘”And if you also went up to the judge and said, ‘Don’t decide this case my way, I’ll come over to your house and steal something from you,’ that would be extortion and you’d also go to jail,’ he said.”
Read more here: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2015/jun/01/kansas-lawmakers-approve-131m-budget-state-court-s/