Litigation

Open to Public: Candidate Interviews in KS

By Peter Hardin

To increase public confidence in judicial selection, a panel that screens candidates for two top Kansas courts will open its candidate interviews to the public.

“The decision to open the interviews recognizes that a more transparent process of appellate judicial selection is important,” the Associated Press quoted nominating commission Chairwoman Anne Burke as saying. “This change will allow the public to hear the questions asked by the Commission and the candidates? answers.?

“We believe the move toward open interviews will demonstrate the careful thought and consideration given by the commission to those whose names are forwarded to the governor for appointment,” Burke said in a press statement. “Kansans now can see for themselves how well the nonpartisan merit selection process works.”

Candidate interviews for the Kansas Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals will be opened to the public. Missouri recently took a similar step (see Gavel Grab). Of states using nominating commissions to fill Supreme Court vacancies, Kansas becomes the 11th to open interviews to the public, according to the Kansas Judicial Branch press release.

Kansas has a merit-based selection system for choosing judges. It’s alone in having its screening commission for the appeals courts include a majority of lawyer members, chosen by other lawyers. As a result, some critics have singled out Kansas’ system as providing the least access to the public in the nation.

In November retention elections, voters elected to retain four state Supreme Court justices who were targeted for ouster by anti-abortion activists.

House Judiciary Chairman Lance Kinzer said the shift to interviews open to the public was a “change in tone” but did not solve the basic problem with Kansas’ selection process.

In North Carolina, meanwhile, an Elizabeth City Daily Advance editorial called for judicial election reform and discussed a proposal for a “merit election system” with citizens voting on judicial candidates who were screened by a nominating commission.

Full post as published by The Gavel on December 13, 2010 (boomark / email).