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July 31 - 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.
July 11 - A summer ballot measure in Kansas four years ago showed the enduring popularity of abortion rights even in deeply red states, and started a trend of ballot measures to defend them. Next month, Kansas will again vote on a measure with consequences for abortion — as well as for L.G.B.T.Q. rights, congressional redistricting and other hot-button issues. But none of those words will appear on the ballot.
June 24 - Kansas voted to protect abortion. Now billionaire-backed politicians are trying to seize the courts to ban it anyway with everything riding on a single August 4th vote. Kate Shaw is joined by Micah Kubic (Executive Director, ACLU of Kansas) and Emily Wales (President and CEO, Planned Parenthood Great Plains).
June 16 - An August constitutional amendment vote would change from merit-based nominations to electing Kansas Supreme Court justices. It would give voters the ability to directly pick Kansas Supreme Court justices, but critics say the ripple effects would be massive.
May 30 - Kansas United for Impartial Courts rounded up volunteer door-knockers in Lenexa and Wichita to encourage people to vote Aug. 5 against selecting Kansas Supreme Court justices by general election.
April 19 - The process by which Kansas chooses its state supreme court justices goes back almost exactly 70 years, to the carefully timed resignation of Chief Justice William Smith on December 31, 1956.
July 27 - The merit-based system works. We have seen it work, because it allowed us to appoint capable, independent justices who served Kansans well. And we have fought for it together. In 2016, well-funded special interest groups launched a coordinated effort to remove nearly every justice standing for retention — not because those justices had failed in their duties, but because they had ruled in ways that powerful outside groups disliked. Back then, we came together to make the case to Kansas voters that this was exactly the kind of political pressure the system was designed to resist. Voters agreed, and the effort failed.
July 23 - Between us, we spent more than three decades leading the highest courts of Kansas and Texas. We came to the bench through different systems, served in different political environments and do not agree on every legal or political question. But we agree on this: Kansans should reject the proposed constitutional amendment to replace the state’s merit-based system with partisan, money-driven elections for the Kansas Supreme Court.
July 22 - I know a bit about the current selection process. Last year, I was one of 19 applicants that sought to fill a vacancy on the Kansas Court of Appeals. The same sort of nominating commission process that is currently constitutionally required for Supreme Court vacancies was utilized for the Court of Appeals vacancy ... It was the most thorough job application process I have been through.
July 1 - On Aug. 4, Kansans will vote on a constitutional amendment to determine how we select Supreme Court justices. The proposed amendment would eliminate our current merit-based selection process, replacing it with a popular election
June 24 - Just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Kansans rejected the anti-abortion “Value Them Both” amendment, becoming the first state to affirm reproductive freedom at the ballot box after the Dobbs decision. Today, Kansas voters are being asked a very different question: whether to replace the merit-based process for selecting Kansas Supreme Court justices with one based on statewide judicial elections.
May 26 - The August vote on Kansas Supreme Court justice selection will affect the course of our shared government and civic life for an age. That sounds like a big, overarching statement, but it has the
May 15 - A pair of retired Kansas Supreme Court justices made a compelling case Thursday against politicizing the state’s highest court — and why voters should reject the Aug. 4 constitutional amendment.
August 10, 2025 - Kansas has a lot to be proud of this past week — not just because we have an outstanding new state Supreme Court justice in Larkin Walsh, but because the process that led to her appointment continues to work exactly as it should.
July 12, 2025 - This session, the Kansas Legislature voted to send Senate Concurrent Resolution 1611 to voters. This proposed constitutional amendment creates the direct partisan political election of Kansas Supreme Court justices. Such elections would be the death knell of an independent judiciary.