Kansas judges fail to force lawmakers to raise funding after chief justice tosses suit

A group of Kansas judges have failed to persuade the state Supreme Court to order lawmakers to provide additional judicial funding, after Chief Justice Marla Luckert dismissed the case.

The district court judges’ lawsuit, filed in late December increased tensions between the judicial branch and the Legislature. Republican lawmakers responded by condemning the action as judicial overreach and questioning how the Supreme Court could be impartial.

Luckert,in a five-page order issued Wednesday, acknowledged the problems raised by the judges, including salaries that lag behind market levels and lack of adequate staffing that “has caused significant stress and demoralization among Kansas judges and judicial branch employees.”

But, she wrote, allowing the case to proceed would impede “crucial inter-branch discussions” surrounding judicial branch funding.

“We are confident at this juncture that the matters (the judges) raise are better handled through inter-branch cooperation,” Luckert wrote.