Kansas Senate committee stalls attorney’s appointment to public defender board

A Senate committee withheld approval of a Lawrence attorney’s nomination to serve on the state’s public defender board after a senator said she was an “activist.”

Sen. Tim Shallenburger, a Baxter Springs Republican serving on the Confirmation Oversight Committee, said Tuesday he wouldn’t vote to affirm attorney Meredith Schnug’s nomination to the Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense. Instead, he asked that her nomination be left to the full Senate when lawmakers return in January.

“I believe that Meredith Schnug is more of an advocate than we need, an activist,” Shallenburger said.

Gov. Laura Kelly nominated Schnug, an associate law professor at the University of Kansas, to fill a vacant position on the board. The oversight committee approves nominees to become acting members of the boards to which they are nominated, and the full Senate finalizes the confirmation.

Schnug’s nomination will be considered by the full Senate, but she will not join the public defender board until that occurs, said Sen. Chase Blasi, committee chairman and Senate majority leader.

After Schnug introduced herself and spoke about her career as an attorney and professor at the University of Kansas, including volunteer work she’s done, Shallenburger questioned how she has time to do her job.

“So, you’re a full-time professor at the University of Kansas, correct?” Shallenburger asked. “It seems like you have an awful lot of time to volunteer for other stuff. So does a professor not stay very busy at the University of Kansas?”

Schnug affirmed that she stays “pretty busy” in her position teaching and her primary responsibility working in the law clinic supervising law students.

“I do make time for additional volunteer work, because it’s important to me, and I’m able to manage all of those things, and obviously complete my job responsibilities as well,” she said.

Shallenburger also questioned Schnug about political ideologies, asking about specific amicus briefs she wrote, which are submitted to the courts by individuals, organizations or attorneys who aren’t party to the court case but who share opinions or expertise related to the issue.

Shallenburger asked about a brief submitted in a Colorado court in the case where a website designer refused to make websites for gay couples. Schnug said she didn’t recall the brief and didn’t write it.

The brief was submitted by a group of 50 law professors, including Schnug, from states in which they teach laws that “prohibit discrimination based on numerous vulnerable characteristics,” the document said.

Senate President Ty Masterson asked Schnug about her opinion on diversity, equity and inclusion issues.

She said she had done research with professors at other law schools and made presentations geared toward lawyers about the subject. But Schnug said law professors aren’t “trying to indoctrinate students with any particular ideology.”

“We make it very clear in the clinic, people’s political beliefs don’t matter, their stances on issues don’t matter, but when it comes to sitting down with a client, there’s certain interpersonal skills that they have to adopt in order to be an effective advocate,” Schnug said.

The committee delayed a decision on Schnug’s nomination until it can be addressed by the full Senate.

Two other nominations, that of Greg Smith and Vic Braden to become members of the Prisoner Review Board, made by Attorney General Kris Kobach, were approved by the committee. The two will serve on the board until they receive final approval from the Senate.

Julie Allen-Murray was reappointed to serve as administrator for the Department of Credit Unions, and Greg Graves was reappointed as a member of the University of Kansas Hospital Authority.

This story first appeared on Kansas Reflector, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization covering state government, politics and policy.