Did You Know …
The KS Bar Controls the Supreme Court of Kansas?
That We The People Are Eliminated From The Selection Process?
It’s true.
In our Constitution, The Kansas Bill of Rights clearly states, “All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority.”
But the Supreme Court selection process is controlled by a “nominating commission,” controlled by the Kansas Bar, with no connection to We the People.
How exactly did we get to this place?
It’s a long and relatively unknown story. At one time, Kansans enjoyed direct elections of our Supreme Court Justices, just like all other branches of our government. They, like other elected officials, were accountable to We The People. But in 1957 that all changed with the infamous political Triple Play.
The Triple Play.
Governor Fred Hall, a young “firebrand politician,” had just lost his re-election bid. His political allies of those days wanted to keep their influence alive in the state, so they concocted a lame duck scheme to keep Hall politically viable.
Here’s how the scheme unfolded:
- Supreme Court Justice William Smith, 69, retired from the Court for “health” reasons.
- Outgoing Governor Hall retired from his position as Governor, temporarily elevating Lt. Governor John McCuish to the Governorship.
- New Governor McCuish then appointed previous Governor Hall to the Supreme Court, filling the vacancy left by the now retired William Smith.
- This “Triple Play” took approximately 15 minutes to accomplish on January 3, 1957, just prior to the new administration being sworn in.
Public Reaction.
It was their hope that these job switches would mostly go unnoticed during the holidays. They couldn’t have been more wrong. The public rightly reacted with outrage, demanding a change to prevent this kind of political trickery from ever happening again.
Again, the Supreme Court Justices were elected directly by the public at that time. The only necessary change would have been to modify the mechanism for filling a vacancy. But in the heat of the moment the legislature and the public overreacted – instead opting to change the entire nature of the Kansas Supreme Court.
The Nominating Commission.
They changed the Kansas Constitution to eliminate Supreme Court direct elections and instead established a nominating commission comprised of nine individuals. Those nine individuals have the authority to select three names and provide those names to the current Governor any time a Supreme Court vacancy occurs. The Governor must then select one of those names to be on the Supreme Court. If the Governor fails to select one of the three names, the Chief Justice of The Court makes the selection. The appointments to the highest Court in Kansas would now be made by the nominating commission, not the Kansas citizens.
So, who gets to be on this powerful, unaccountable nominating commission?
As if it isn’t grievous enough to take the power of selecting the Court away from the citizens, this nine-member commission is made up by the Governor appointing four members with the remaining five members (a majority) all appointed by the Kansas Bar. Let that soak in – instead of citizens, now lawyers get to choose who picks the Justices for Kansas’ highest court.
The Kansas Reality.
Kansas became the only State which has a Supreme Court Nominating Commission with a majority of its’ members who are lawyers, elected by the rest of the Bar. In other words, we are the only State in which one profession, lawyers, has absolute control over the membership of the highest court in state government. With the Commission appointments being primarily dominated by large trial attorney corporations, it is no wonder that a liberal bias has pervaded our Supreme Court for decades.
The Need to Change.
Whether you are for or against any rulings made by this Supreme Court, we must agree that the current selection process controlled by the Kansas Bar has to be changed. Otherwise, there is no connection to We The People…no accountability.
Stephen Ware, a professor of law at the University of Kansas, submitted testimony to the Kansas Legislature on this topic. He published articles that researched how all 50 states select their supreme court justices. His research shows that the Kansas Supreme Court selection process is undemocratic, extreme, and secretive. His testimony then elaborated on those three areas.
The Kansas Supreme Court will never be accountable for their decisions, and most importantly it will never represent Kansans or their values under the current selection scheme.
What will it take to change?
The only mechanism available is for We The People to amend the Constitution of the State of Kansas. This must be done to restore political power and authority to the people as intended.
SCR 1611, A Constitutional Amendment.
The Constitution provides a framework for all of our laws to follow. Senate Concurrent Resolution 1611 (SCR 1611) does just that. As agreed upon by a two-thirds majority in the House and the Senate, the resolution states in Section 2,
“The following statement shall be printed on the ballot with the amendment as a whole:
“Explanatory statement. This amendment gives the voters the right to elect the justices of the Kansas Supreme Court. The justices shall serve terms of six years, with the elections of justice positions 1, 2 and 3 to occur in 2028, positions 4 and 5 to occur in 2030 and positions 6 and 7 to occur in 2032, and every six years thereafter. The rules applicable for such elections and the designation of position numbers shall be provided by law. Any vacancy on the court for an unexpired term shall be filled at an election as provided by law.”
We The People Will Elect our Supreme Court Justices.
The elections will be staggered every two years, and your elected representatives will decide which positions go first, whether each congressional district will have a Supreme Court Justice or they will all be elected statewide, and how a retiring justice will be replaced. That means YOU, We the People, will have direct input to your elected representative about this important process.
And next August 4, for the first time since 1958, the constitutional phrase “All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority”, will once again be true.
Please join me August 4, 2026 to vote YES for this very important constitutional amendment.
State Rep. Steve Brunk
District 85