Voters must foil Brownback court coup

Sam Brownback, the most disrespected governor in the nation (25 percent approval), wants to shackle Kansas with his brand of ultraconservatism far beyond the much-anticipated end of his second term in January 2019.

This November, Kansans will have the chance to fulfill or deny Brownback’s ambition. On the ballot will be the names of five of Kansas’ seven Supreme Court justices and six of the 14 Court of Appeals judges, the state’s second highest court. Voters can decide which ones to retain, with “yes” votes, and which ones to dismiss, with “no” votes.

If all are dismissed, Brownback will appoint the 11 replacements, a majority of Kansas’ 21 highest judicial officers. Combined with four of the 10 incumbents, judges of his choice and philosophical bent would control the state’s legal system for decades.

There will be a muscular, well-financed effort to ensure that the unprecedented coup happens. In the truth-free zone of today’s anonymous political advertising, Kansans will be exposed to many fictions conveyed by shadowy images, ominous music and sonorous voices, including:

▪  “Four of the Supreme Court justices on the ballot wanted to save brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr from execution despite the bestial nature of their 2000 rape-and-murder rampage, but were slapped down 8-to-1 by the U.S. Supreme Court.” Consequently, you must vote them out.

▪  “Four of the six appeals court judges on the ballot want to allow the surgical dismemberment of innocent children during late-term abortions.” You also must vote them out.

Both emotional pitches will misrepresent facts and deliberately distort the judicial role in our governing system. Tragically, some people will fall for them because they push the emotional hot buttons of violent crime and abortion.

In the Carr cases, the Kansas court upheld their convictions but found what all the justices considered to be errors in the sentencing phase, including a violation of the federal Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. The court voided those death sentences, meaning that the brothers would die in prison unless the sentencing phases were redone. The state appealed and the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed on the Eighth Amendment violation and overturned the Kansas court.

Every American is entitled to full due process, and denying it to even the most heinous among us would make it possible to deny it to even the most innocent. Courts often disagree on what due process involves, and the highest court prevails. It’s called the rule of law, not of men, nor fear nor loathing.

In the abortion case, the 14 appeals judges split 7-7 on whether the Kansas Constitution guarantees the right to abortion. The Kansas Supreme Court has a duty to take the case, whether it wants to or not, because it is a new state constitutional question. But whatever the Kansas court decides about a state right, the federal right remains and nothing much changes.

Those are hardly sufficient reasons to fulfill Brownback’s grand ambition.

This story was originally published June 28, 2016 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Voters must foil Brownback court coup."