Johnson County, Kansas, faces merit system change

Missouri isn't the only state facing challenges to its system of selecting judges by merit.

Several retired Kansas judges and legal officials held a press conference Monday to decry a proposal to move Johnson County, Kan., one of that state's most populous counties, to a system of direct elections for judges.

In arguments familiar to Missouri ears, proponents of Johnson County's current system of merit selection said elections would infuse money and special interests into a system where the rule of law and impartiality should be the only considerations. Residents will be asked on the November ballot to move to an election system.

"Certainly there are good judges in the elected system, just as there are good judges in the selection system," said Bob Stephan, a former Kansas attorney general who was also an elected judge in the Wichita area. "But special interests want to intervene in the process, and that shouldn't be permitted."

In Kansas, each of the state's 31 judicial districts can choose an elected or a merit system for selection of judges. Johnson County, which comprises the entire 10th Judicial District, uses a 14- member commission to select a panel of three judicial nominees. Half the commission members are lay members appointed by the county commission; the other half are Johnson County lawyers elected by their peers. The governor appoints one of the nominees, who must then stand for periodic retention votes.

Kansas Judicial Review of Johnson County, the group that sponsored the ballot initiative, says the system would better serve people if it were opened to more popular participation. Doug Johnson, a volunteer with the group who attended Monday's press conference, said the current system is "closed and secret" and run by "elitists" who would prefer the people not to have a say.

"Of course a judge can't judge without bias," Johnson said. "That's why the public needs to know what that bias is. The public needs a chance to decide if that bias is a bias they want on the bench or not."

Johnson also alleged that members of the nominating commission make more donations to Democrats than Republicans.

"What you have is a district court system that is basically an appendage of the Democratic Party," he said. "I don't think even your rank-and-file Democrats want that."

Legal officials denied that charge. Greg Musil, president of Justice Not for Sale, a group fighting the initiative, said that despite Johnson's allegations, most of the judges in the 10th District are registered as Republicans. In Kansas, voters may register with a party, although they can also remain unaffiliated.

Larry McClain, a retired administrative judge and current member of the nominating commission, said politics doesn't play a role in the selection process.

"We are focused on selecting the best person to be judge," he said. "It has absolutely nothing to do with politics."

Johnson County had more than 500,000 residents in 2005 and is among the fastest growing areas in the country, according to the Overland Park, Kan.-based County Economic Research Institute. It is among the largest counties in Kansas that uses the merit system.

"This is a jewel county," Musil said. "That's why they went after this county, I'm convinced. The groups that have promoted this election, if they can win Johnson County, they'll go after Douglas County and Leavenworth and Shawnee and all the other counties."

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