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TOPEKA — Sam Brownback's spokeswoman said Thursday that the U.S. senator and Republican nominee for Kansas governor questions whether the process for picking new state Supreme Court justices is constitutional.
Brownback's views are in line with a federal lawsuit alleging that the selection process violates voters' rights by allowing attorneys to control who gets appointed to the high court. Attorneys chosen only by fellow attorneys make up a majority of the commission screening applications for Supreme Court vacancies.
The selection process is an important issue for some of Brownback's fellow conservative Republicans, who've been upset in recent years by Supreme Court rulings on abortion and education funding. They argue that the court isn't accountable enough to voters because of how justices are chosen.
The GOP nominee doesn't intend to draft a plan for changing the process, spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag said, but "he's going to continue to talk with those who are interested in making a change."
Brownback's Democratic opponent, state Sen. Tom Holland, has said he doesn't see the need to make any changes in the selection process. He and some GOP moderates believe it is insulated from partisan politics.
Holland campaign manager Dana Houle questioned Brownback's judgment on such issues by noting his past support for Phill Kline as a nominee for U.S. attorney for Kansas.
In 2001, Brownback described Kline as an "outstanding" potential appointee, but Kline withdrew and instead ran for Kansas attorney general in 2002, winning narrowly. Kline became a national figure for investigating abortion clinics, but the controversy surrounding his actions led to his defeat in 2006.
Houle said of Brownback: "Now he wants to drastically change the way judicial appointments are made in Kansas without telling anybody specifically what he would do. This raises serious questions about Brownback's true agenda and leaves us to wonder what he's hiding."
Judicial selection is also a compelling issue for conservatives because Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson will fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court before leaving office in January, assuming there's no federal court intervention. Robert Davis retired as chief justice on Aug. 3 and died the next day.
Nine lower-court judges and four attorneys have applied to fill the vacancy. The nine-member Supreme Court Nominating Commission plans to interview them Sept. 27 and 28 and send the names of three finalists to Parkinson.
Five of the nominating commission's nine members are attorneys elected by fellow attorneys.
Parkinson will have 60 days to pick one of the three finalists. If he refuses to choose one of them, the decision will fall to new Chief Justice Lawton Nuss.
Voters decide every six years whether a justice remains on the bench. However, since Kansas switched from the partisan election of justices in 1960, no justice has been removed.
