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Kansas Judicial Funding Threatened As Judge Rejects Policy Imposed On Courts

Stephen Koranda file photo

Funding for the entire Kansas judicial system is now in legal limbo.

A Shawnee County judge has struck down a law that changes the way chief judges are selected. But that law was tied to other legislation that said all funding for the judicial branch of government would be stripped away if the first law was struck down.

The Kansas Legislature passed a law that took administrative power away from the state supreme court.

The law said judges in each of the state's judicial districts would start picking their own chief judges, taking that authority away from the Kansas Supreme Court. Then, lawmakers tied the judiciary's entire budget to preserving that new policy.

In essence, lawmakers told the judicial branch to accept this new way of picking chief judges--or lose funding for the entire court system.

On Wednesday, Shawnee County Judge Larry Hendricks declared the new judicial selection law unconstitutional, saying it interferes with the supreme court's power to oversee its own branch of government. He did not rule on the legality of the subsequent legislation defunding the court system.

It remains unclear just what will happen next, but Attorney General Derek Schmidt says he'll move to keep the courts open.

J. Schafer is a reporter with Kansas Public Radio in Lawrence.

J. Schafer is the News Director of Kansas Public Radio at the Univeristy of Kansas. He’s also the Managing Editor of the Kansas Public Radio Network, which provides news and information to other public radio stations in Kansas and Missouri. Before joining KPR in 1995, Schafer spent 10 years as a commercial radio and TV newsman. During his career, he's filed stories for nearly every major radio news network in the nation including ABC, NBC, CBS, AP, UPI, the Mutual Broadcasting System, NPR and the BBC. This seems to impress no one. At KPR, he produces feature stories, interviews and newscast items and edits the work of others. In the fall of 2000, he performed contract work for the U.S. State Department, traveling to central Asia to teach broadcast journalism at newly independent radio stations in the former Soviet Union. One of his passions is Kansas; learning about and promoting the state’s rich heritage, people and accomplishments. Schafer gives presentations about Kansas to various organizations around the state to remind residents about our awesome history and incredible people. A native of Great Bend, he studied journalism and mass communications at Barton County Community College and at the University of Kansas. He was also an exchange student to Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany. The “J.” in J. Schafer stands for Jeremy, but he doesn’t really care for that name. He also enjoys the pretentiousness of using just a single initial for a first name!