You may have seen the commercial on YouTube or some other social media site. It’s the one where a lot of older white people are looking upset, or troubled, or disappointed because they can’t directly vote for their Kansas Supreme Court justices. The narrator implies that the current method of selecting justices in Kansas is controlled by lawyers (of all people), and they might have shady, ulterior motives which aren’t in our best interests. But the narrator never explains why we’re not electing justices anymore. (Those darn lawyers, maybe?)
Let’s go back to 1956, when Supreme Court justices were elected by partisan voting in Kansas. Republican Gov. Fred Hall—who wanted another two-year term—had been defeated in the primary by Warren Shaw. Shaw went on to lose to Democrat Robert Docking in the general election that year. Well, Hall was not ready to step away from a government job, so he talked with his good friend, William Smith, who just happened to be the chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court. Smith was ailing physically and ready to step away from public life, but did not want the new Democrat governor appointing his (Smith’s) replacement. So Hall and Smith devised a clever—and totally underhanded—plan to keep the seat in Republican hands. The plot also involved Lt. Gov. John McCuish. Eleven days before Hall’s term as governor ended, Smith resigned from the Kansas Supreme Court. That same day, Hall also resigned, and that act made McCuish the governor. In his only official act as governor, McCuish appointed his former boss Hall to the Supreme Court to fill Smith’s seat.
These shenanigans might seem pretty tame by today’s standards, but in the late ’50s, this scheme was considered disgusting, sleazy, and a serious breach of ethics. The caper was quickly branded as the “Triple Play” by newspapers across the state and the public was outraged. So were a majority of lawmakers, and the Republican-dominated legislature crafted an amendment to the Kansas Constitution that passed overwhelmingly in 1958. That amendment created the merit system we enjoy today, a system where—by law—justices are forbidden from engaging in political activities.
A return to electing partisan justices would open the door to more dark money, more endless campaigns, more sleaze, and fewer genuinely qualified justices. Your choice, Kansas. Choose wisely.
Keith Richardson, Hutchinson