Confirmation hearings for Kansas Court of Appeals seat set to begin

Confirmation hearings for Kathryn Gardner, Gov. Sam Brownback’s pick for the vacant seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals, will begin Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Gardner, a Topeka attorney, was tapped by Brownback to replace Caleb Stegall, the former aide who was elevated by the governor to the Kansas Supreme Court after less than a year on the Court of Appeals.

“Kathryn Gardner brings tremendous qualities to the Court of Appeals,” Brownback said in a statement Tuesday. “She is a gifted individual and accomplished attorney who is deeply committed to serving her community and the State. I am pleased to appoint her and look forward to the Senate’s review and confirmation.”

Gardner has served as law clerk for federal Judge Sam Crow in Topeka since 2000 and previously worked for the Martin Pringle law firm in Wichita.

Senate Vice President Jeff King, R-Independence, Judiciary chair, said committee members were carefully reviewing more than 800 pages of documents Gardner had submitted and analyzing her qualifications to make sure she is up to the standard expected for the court of appeals.

“My intention is that this will be the most thorough vetting of an attorney put up for a Court of Appeals spot in the history of the state,” King said.

The committee will hold two days of hearings to evaluate Gardner’s judicial temperament and legal acumen and then vote Thursday on whether to recommend the nomination to the full Senate. The nomination will then proceed to the full Senate.

“We intend on them to be grueling,” King said of the hearings. “And they should be. That’s our job. No one is prejudging the nominee either way. We will be grueling in our questioning and use of materials and her responses to evaluate her accordingly.”

“This nominee by her own admission has an unusual professional background. She has been a law clerk for the majority of her career,” King continued. “She has not done any legal writing under her own name in over a decade and that gives us challenges in evaluating her beliefs, her work ethic, her work quality. But we will rigorously examine what she’s given us and her questioning to try and determine that.”

In her submission to the committee, Gardner described her experience as broad and said working as a clerk for judges has given her a strong understanding of the duties of a judge.

“Unlike many attorneys who have similar years of experience, I have not specialized in either civil or criminal law but am an intellectual generalist who enjoys both litigation and writing,” she wrote.

This story was originally published March 3, 2015 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Confirmation hearings for Kansas Court of Appeals seat set to begin."