KS Court of Appeals
The Kansas Court of Appeals majority ruling Friday was a 7-7 tie which means the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act is not voided, but the lower court injunction remains in place and the ban is not in effect.
Seven judges support one appalling method of tearing apart LIVING well-formed unborn babies –due to the novel claim that abortion is included in our state constitutional bill of rights. This is an activist, offensive ruling not reflective of sound analysis.
Seven judges wrote in dissent, disagreeing that the dismemberment ban must stay blocked. Those seven judges included two appointed under pro-abortion Gov. Sebelius, showing that the recognition of the state’s right to prohibit an unbelievably heinous and barbaric abortion method –as the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2007 Gonzales ruling clearly did– is an issue beyond partisan labels.
The resulting split ruling affirms the recent improvement in the nomination of Appellate judges and underscores Kansans for Life’s promotion of reform of the nomination process for state Supreme Court. .
Of the 14 total appellate court members, the newest member was picked with the “federal model” protocol (Kathryn Gardner, part of the dissent) while 13 were picked under the “Missouri plan” method in which:
- nominees are chosen secretly within a commission whose majority is chosen by a disproportionately tiny group of registered attorneys. The die is cast by the commission chief, chosen last time by 2,500 attorneys–not at all proportionally representative of the 1.7 million registered Kansas voters.
- nominees forwarded to the governor are chosen with various motivations by the commission with a nod to the policy preferences of the sitting governor (and candidates with recorded donations to the governor), but the choice is forced on the governor, for if he/she rejects all three, the Chief Justice gets to pick one.
Kansans for Life appreciates any judge who respects the rule of law. Our support for judicial selection reform is not about suggesting that it is impossible for a “Missouri-plan” judge to arrive at a correct result– that would be absurd.
Rather, we support reform because increased democratic accountability on the front end of the process builds societal respect for the judiciary. On balance, that is likely to result, over the long term, in more judges who will exercise judicial restraint.
KFL has held this position in support of judicial selection reform since 2005, under Gov. Sebelius– and thus is independent of the existence of a Governor’s policy on abortion because the public accountability rests in the Senate confirmation process.
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