Kansas Voters Killed the Republican Plan to Elect Supreme Court Justices, 62% to 38%

Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment that would have let them elect state Supreme Court justices directly, with about 62% voting no out of roughly 593,695 ballots counted. The 24-point margin in a state Donald Trump carried by double digits makes it the second time in four years that Kansans have decisively refused a Republican-backed change to their constitution touching the courts and abortion.

The amendment would have abolished the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission, which has screened judicial candidates since 1958, and replaced it with partisan statewide elections and six-year terms. The commission is made up of nine members: five Kansas lawyers elected by their fellow practitioners, and four members appointed by the governor. It sends a slate of finalists to the governor, who picks from it.

That system was created out of scandal. In 1956, in what became known as the "triple play," a governor resigned so his lieutenant governor could appoint him to the state Supreme Court. Kansas voters approved the merit-selection commission two years later specifically to take the appointment out of raw political hands. Republican legislators who put this year's amendment on the ballot argued the commission has become its own closed guild — that a handful of elected lawyers effectively pick the state's highest court with no accountability to voters.

The subtext was not judicial process. It was two lines of rulings. The Kansas Supreme Court held in 2019 that the state constitution protects abortion access, and it has repeatedly ordered the legislature to increase public school funding. Backers of the amendment made no secret of wanting a court that would reverse both.

At least $12.8 million flowed into the yes and no campaigns, much of it from groups that do not disclose donors. Attorney General Kris Kobach, working through his political action committee and allied conservative organizations, put heavy advertising behind the yes side, attacking the nominating commission as a lawyers' cartel. Opponents — a coalition of the state bar, education groups, abortion-rights organizations and a number of retired judges — argued the amendment would simply hand the court to whichever side spent more.

Speaking at a Republican watch party in Wichita on Tuesday night, Kobach framed the loss as at least providing clarity. The vote "creates more certainty" about who will decide the cases now moving through the system, he said: "If there had been a shift, there would be some question as to who would eventually be on the court that hears those cases. Now we know it's probably going to be the justices right now, unless somebody retires."

The 1958 commission stays in place. So does the court that has been ruling against the legislature.