By Rachel Whitten/KansasReporter

Some Kansans are not satisfied with the way state judges are chosen, and they’re doing something to fix the process.

Not only was a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Wichita, but separately, a grassroots petition effort has put a question on the ballot for the Nov. 2 election in Atchison and Leavenworth counties to change their judicial selection process.

The part of the process that both the lawsuit and the ballot question challenge is the fact that   Kansas nominating commissions, which are formed to presenting three nominees for each position to the governor for appointment, are partly made up of lawyers elected by the Kansas Bar, not by Kansas citizens.

The lawsuit will be argued by James Bopp, an election law and campaign finance lawyer from Terre Haute, Ind., representing four Kansas voters, Bob Dool and Thomas Shermuly of Wichita, Julie Brown of Olathe and Donald Rosenow of Clay Center, who are plaintiffs in the suit.

Bopp is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the five members of the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission who were elected by lawyers in the Kansas Bar from participating in the selection of the nominees for the open state Supreme Court position. The restraining order has not yet been granted.

Separately, voters in Kansas’ first judicial district, which includes Atchison and Leavenworth Counties, held a petition drive to change the way judges in their district are put on the bench. Currently, a local nominating commission, that has four of its nine members elected by lawyers, is in charge of presenting nominees to the governor. Voters in those counties will get the chance to decide if they want to elect their judges in the future by partisan election, just like the process in 52 other Kansas counties.

Read More