By Trey Dellinger for RED STATE
As the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations fade, it’s easy to think of the fight for freedom as a “done deal” — a project completed two centuries ago. But that’s the wrong way to think about it. There is always a power-hungry elite, contemptuous of the people’s ability to govern themselves. Our 250-year-old revolution is ongoing, and many battles remain to be fought with those who would seize control from the people.
One such battleground has to do with how people choose judges. For example, 14 states use a process called the “Missouri plan,” by which attorneys essentially pick judges. Not the people. Not the average voter. Not even the elected Legislature through advice and consent. Unelected attorneys. One such state is Kansas. But on August 4, Kansas voters could change that.
Currently, ordinary Kansans have no effective say in how their appellate judges and many trial court judges are selected. That’s almost the entire third branch of representative government. For example, nominees for the state Supreme Court are handpicked by a commission made up of five Kansas lawyers and four non-lawyers appointed by the governor. The five lawyers are elected by other Kansas lawyers. The nominating commission selects a slate of three lawyers, then the governor picks one of those three lawyers to be a justice. The lawyers have a 5-4 majority on the commission, which means lawyers, not citizens, control who gets to sit on the state Supreme Court.
Early in their term, justices are subject to a “retention” vote where voters decide whether to keep the incumbent judge. These retention elections don’t give voters a real choice because the sitting justice does not have an opponent. Even if the voters “threw the bum out,” they wouldn’t pick the justice’s replacement. This leads to voter apathy.
