Kansas Republicans have decided that favorable rulings in court hearings may require some incentive - and that incentive boils down to whether or not judges get paid.
http://www2.ljworld.com/...
Kansas lawmakers are threatening to cut off all funding for the judicial branch of state government if the Kansas Supreme Court strikes down a law enacted last year spelling out how chief judges in the district courts are selected.
A lawsuit challenging the new system of selecting chief judges is currently pending in Shawnee County District Court.
The suit which changes the selection process for judges is seen by Republicans as a way to prevent them from remolding the Kansas court system.
Republican Jeff King (R-Independence) has argued that this legislation is designed to restore local control in the selection of a chief justice; as the practice of having the Kansas Supreme Court appoint those judges removes that control.
In larger counties in Kansas, such as Sedgewick, justices are elected but the Chief Justice is appointed by the state court. This has led to many of these courts being primarily Republican with a mix as the Chief Justice.
http://www2.ljworld.com/...
Rep. John Carmichael, of Wichita, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said he believes the language is meant to send another message to the courts.
"It leads me to only one conclusion, and that is that the Legislature is attempting once again to hold a gun to the head of the courts in an attempt to intimidate the courts into ruling in the school finance case in a way that pleases some members of the Legislature," Carmichael said.
Carmichael, an attorney who practices in Wichita, said the selection of judges has been a hot issue in the Sedgwick County District Court, where judges are elected in partisan races. For several years, he said, the chief judge of that court was a Democrat while the majority of judges on the bench were Republicans.
Kansas Judicial system has been under fire from the Brownback administration, who changed the Kansas Supreme Court selection process, and has since nominated consistent
Brownback Conservatives.
Should the Court rule unfavorably on the lawsuit, they may find themselves defunded. No word on the impact of failure to fund courts would have on the current budget crisis in the state.