News from Brownbackistan: Kansas Asks Its Entire Supreme Court to Step Aside in Key Case

[deminks]

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/11/kansas-asks-entire-supreme-court-step-aside-key-case

Kansas Republicans believe they have created a law that their own high court cannot review.

In the latest twist of the topsy-turvy constitutional showdown between the GOP-controlled state legislature and the state Supreme Court, the Kansas attorney general has asked the entire Kansas Supreme Court to recuse itself from hearing a key case.

The power struggle between Kansas Republicans and the state's highest court goes back to a years-long battle over education funding. The state Supreme Court has repeatedly ordered the legislature to spend more money on public education, a request that conflicts with Republicans' desire to cut taxes. In 2014, the legislature passed a bill stripping the Supreme Court of the administrative authority to appoint chief judges in Kansas' 31 judicial districts, a move Democrats saw as a power play by the legislature to intimidate the top court during the ongoing fight over school spending. Chief District Court Judge Larry Solomon challenged the constitutionality of the judicial administration law, arguing that it violates the state's separation of powers.

But the legislature doubled down. Earlier this year, it passed a judicial budget that would cut off funding for the entire Kansas court system if the courts struck down the judicial administration bill—a situation that would seize critical state functions such as criminal prosecutions, civil disputes, real estate sales, and adoptions. That led to the bizarre moment in September when a district court ruled the administrative bill unconstitutional, putting all the funding for the state courts in sudden jeopardy. The situation threatened to devolve into a judicial catch-22, in which no court could rule on the legality of the laws because those laws had defunded them. To avoid that situation, the judge put a hold on his ruling invalidating the law until the state Supreme Court could hear the case—except that the state of Kansas is now arguing that the Supreme Court shouldn't have its say.

(snip)

Under Kansas law, Supreme Court justices can appoint district court judges to sit in their place when they recuse themselves. But Schmidt argues that a district court judge shouldn't be involved either, because the law involves appointing chief judges at the district court level. Instead, Schmidt proposes that judges on the Kansas Court of Appeals—just below the level of the Supreme Court and above the district courts—review the case. (Perhaps not coincidentally, in 2013, the Republican-controlled legislature changed the selection process for appeals court judges. Before then, a commission nominated potential judges for the governor to choose from; now the judges are appointed directly by the governor, currently Republican Sam Brownback. The judges most sympathetic to the Republican legislature may be those at the appeals court level.)

(end snip)

[phantom power]

1. This would be funny, except it's basically watching a government unravel.

[Thav]

4. It's kind of scary

Kansas seems to not have a judicial system right now, so there's only 2 of the 3 government branches functioning. Now there is no one to challenge the GOP's laws in kansas.

[HeartoftheMidwest]

8. Feature, not bug.

See also: Wisconsin, Destruction of.
And:
( American Fascism, Stealth implementation of. )
(Democracy, How to Dismantle. )

[Purrfessor]

13. This is exactly what the Koch brothers wanted and paid to get.

In this system the Kochs only answer to the politicians they have paid for, but in the upside-down world of Kansas it is the politicians who answer to their sugar-daddies, the Koch mafia.

[snooper2]

15. It's hilarious, I believe the vast majority of smart people left Kansas a long time ago

So now we get to watch a train wreck

[Demeter]

2. They are clinically insane--that's what's wrong with Kansas

fully owned subsidiary of the Koch Bros.

[ToxMarz]

3. Yes, it's basically their own little Petri Dish

Carrying out experiments that they eventually will try and spread nationwide.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

19. Unfortunately, they are not learning from their experiments

It's like "trickle down" supply side economics. We've had a 30 year experiment going on (cut taxes on the rich) and the result is just the opposite as expected. The result? Every Repuke says the solution to America's economic woes is to further cut taxes on the "job creators" (i.e., the very rich).

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

[Efilroft Sul]

5. The elephant jihadis are trying to blow up the state's court system.

This is what happens when dumb-ass voters keep electing Republicans to office who believe "government is the problem."

[maindawg]

7. The elections in Kansas have been compromised

As have the elections in Ohio and most likely many states. The phenomena is prevalent throughout our republic. We are rapidly slipping into fascism.

[silverweb]

11. Agreed.

Fascism - updated as neo-feudalism.

[zalinda]

9. It's because of a systemic problem

name recognition. People pay so little attention to politics, because all politicians lie. So, unless there is a politician who is vastly different, no one pays attention. They might as well be a Peanuts parent.

Btw, Republicans do not put Republican on their literature any more, at least not here.
Z

[gregcrawford]

6. Ta HELL with Texas...

... Jade Helm 15 should take over Kansas before the legislature decrees the mandatory attendance of public beheadings in stadiums of those who are deemed not Republican enough.

Brownback and his evil minions have stepped WAY over the line.

[edhopper]

10. At some point

the voters will have to realize what the republicans are doing to their State, or keep voting this way and watch their State die.
Their choice.

[Purrfessor]

16. The irony is that they will then become refugees fleeing their home states. Of course they will

attempt to migrate to blue states. At that point blue states can throw the anti-refugee argument right back in their faces: "All you want is freedom, functioning infrastructure, taking jobs from our citizens, free housing and food. For this reason entry is denied. You must return to your state and fight to reclaim it. Don't involve us with your own self-inflicted problems."

[Gothmog]

12. Brownback is a really nasty person who wants to gut judicial review

[Logical]

14. This state is a joke! Hell hole of GOP idiots! Nt

[d_legendary1]

17. Sneak preview boys and girls!

This is how TPP is supposed to work!

[Solly Mack]

18. The Brownback junta.

And it's not funny.

News out of Kansas reads like an underdeveloped country in crisis, where a madman takes over and systematically destroys a working government to consolidate his power.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

20. Seems like it's a full-on bloodless coup.

And a way to make sure they're never removed from power in the state.

Ever.

This has some really chilling prospects for the country as a whole.