Kansas voters will decide Tuesday whether to elect state Supreme Court justices rather than have the governor appoint them.

Kansas voters will decide Tuesday whether to elect state Supreme Court justices rather than have the governor appoint them, a push from conservatives who have chafed for years over court decisions they disagreed with on issues such as abortion, school funding and the death penalty.

If the constitutional amendment passes, supporters hope to elect at least four conservative, anti-abortion justices to the seven-member court by 2033.

Kansas is considering the change amid concerns that increasingly contentious and expensive judicial elections in other states are making their courts more partisan and less independent. Spending in a single state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin last year topped $100 million.

    • jtrek@startrek.website
      9·
      6 hours ago

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment

      The Kansas experiment was a name given to a controversial and widely noted tax-cutting policy/agenda of Kansas Governor Sam Brownback that began with Brownback signing a bill cutting state taxes (Kansas Senate Bill Substitute HB 2117), in May 2012,[1][2] and ended with the Kansas legislature’s repeal of the bill in June 2017. It was one of the largest income tax cuts in

      Despite its record and the fact that “many experts regard the Kansas tax cuts as a failure”, the 2017 Republican tax cuts (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) had some of the same elements of Brownback’s policy, and “many Republicans still embrace the ideology” behind the Kansas tax cuts.[2]

      Conservatives don’t learn shit.

    • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
      6·
      5 hours ago

      One lesson everyone should learn is anything you do in politics can eventually bite you in the ass.

      When Harry Reid ended the fillibuster for (non-Supreme Court) judicial appointments in 2013, Mitch the Cocaine Turtle admonished “you’ll regret this and maybe sooner than you think”. Smashcut fast-forward and he was able to manipulate court appointments.

      Likewise there are now some Republicans who want to nuke the fillibuster entirely to ram through the elections bill. Well what do they think is going to happen in a few years when they no longer have a majority? Dems will also be able to ram through anything and everything with a bare majority.

      Same thing with these state level initiatives. There is no way to create a “magic tool” that your opponent can’t also use against you eventually.