Posted on 07/31/2026 9:23:35 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
GREAT BEND, Kan. — A national fight over state supreme courts is flaring up in Kansas, where voters will decide Tuesday whether to replace the state’s 68-year-old system of appointing justices with direct elections — a change that could shape future rulings on abortion, voting rights and other monumental issues.
The fight over the Kansas Supreme Court reflects the growing importance of state courts since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to abortion and put claims of partisan gerrymandering beyond the reach of federal judges.
“State supreme courts are doing what the federal Supreme Court used to do — the difference being that you can manipulate the composition of the state supreme court through elections,” said Charles Geyh, an Indiana University law professor who has written extensively about state supreme courts.
The vote in Kansas will decide whether Kansas directly elects its justices or appoints them using a merit-based system it adopted decades ago after a political scandal.
Republicans who placed the measure on the ballot say voters should directly choose who serves on the court, while opponents say it’s an effort to install justices who will undo rulings that Republicans don’t like.
The court has given conservatives some recent victories, such as decisions protecting workers who sought religious exemptions from covid-19 vaccine requirements and tightening voting procedures. But the court has frustrated Republicans in other cases, such as with rulings requiring far more money for public education and guaranteeing a right to abortion.
Republicans sought to reverse the state court’s abortion ruling with a measure that appeared on the ballot six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to obtain an abortion. The ballot measure failed, with 59 percent opposed.
After that defeat, Kris Kobach — who...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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We should have more mob rule. Yummy.
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