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Kansas Supreme Court Hears Argument in Judicial Selection Dispute

The Kansas Supreme Court is considering whether lawmakers violated the Constitution when they changed how chief judges are selected. An attorney for the state, Stephen McAllister, argued Thursday that the Kansas Constitution doesn’t specifically talk about chief judges. He says that’s left up to Lawmakers.


“Because the Legislature could create the position, it could abolish the position, it should be able to say ‘here’s how the position will be filled,’” says McAllister.

An attorney representing a district judge says the Kansas Constitution gives the high court power to administer lower courts and it's a violation to take away that power.

This case is also tied to court funding. Lawmakers passed a bill saying if the policy is overturned, the Kansas judicial budget is nullified.
 
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The Kansas Supreme Court is considering whether lawmakers violated the Constitution when they changed how chief judges are selected for district courts. Chief judges have administrative control over local courts. Lawmakers took the power to select them away from the Supreme Court and gave it to local judges.

Attorney Pedro Irigonegaray is representing a judge from central Kansas. He says the Constitution gives that administrative power to the state's high court - and that system has worked well for years.


"The last thing we want are 31 separate districts perhaps creating conflicting rules and procedures,” says Irigonegaray.

Irigonegaray says changing how chief judges are selected violates the Constitution. An attorney for the state says the Constitution doesn’t specify how chief judges are selected, so that job is left up to lawmakers.

The case is tied into the issue of court funding. Lawmakers passed a bill saying if the law is overturned, the Kansas judicial branch loses all of its funding.
 

Stephen Koranda is KPR's Statehouse reporter.