Tension comes with the territory when you serve as a judge, said Marla Luckert, Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court.
After all, sometimes they are deciding matters of life and death.
In the case of the high court, matters must have traveled far to reach their chambers: Cases that lower courts are unable to satisfactorily resolve in the eyes of plaintiffs and are on appeal; state statutes devised by legislators that are viewed as unconstitutional; or issues that concern the ethical responsibilities of attorneys and judges.
Of all the issues that come before the Kansas Supreme Court, none has reared its head more often than how the Legislature funds public schools. Over the past 30 years, school districts have sought legal redress multiple times, frustrated with legislators’ adherence to the state Constitution, which requires that they provide enough money and distribute it so that every child receives a suitable education.
Justice Luckert came on the bench in 2003, just in time to hear the Montoy Case which ultimately resulted in the reform of school finance laws and the injection of hundreds of millions into school finance.
“Actually, I was involved even before then, as a trial court judge in 1993 when Terry Bullock, District Judge for Shawnee County, declared the system unconstitutional,” Luckert said.
In his ruling, Bullock said that minorities and disadvantaged students were not getting their fair share of school dollars, and that the entire system was woefully underfunded.
That started the ball rolling.
In 2010, 2018 and 2019 the court revisited the issue.
As an enforcer of the Kansas Constitution, Luckert said “tension is inherent in the system. But I feel that things are becoming less confrontational between the Legislature and the Court.”
Luckert was in town Thursday and Friday along with Justice Evelyn Wilson and Judge Kim Schroeder who sits on the Kansas Court of Appeals.
In a discussion with the Luckert, Wilson and Schroeder, I asked if they felt they were a target of legislators. After all, a threatening number of Republicans are pushing for the final say on who sits on the Kansas Supreme Court bench.
Leading the pack is Ty Masterson, Senate Majority Leader from Andover, who wants the Kansas Constitution amended so that the state Senate determines whether a governor’s selection to the high court is to its liking.
The amendment would also eliminate the nine-member commission that culls through the dozens of nominees to the high court and ultimately submits three candidates to the governor, who makes the final decision.
Luckert responded with equanimity, saying, “As a court, we don’t have a position on this issue. We regard it as a policy issue to be decided by the Legislature, and perhaps the people, if it comes to that.”
