Remember the separation of powers business you learned in school? You know, there’s the executive branch of government, the legislative branch of government and the judiciary, separate from the other two because there’s not supposed to be politics in the courts.
Well…there’s an interesting little provision in the Legislature’s yet-to-be passed bill that would finance the judiciary in Kansas for the next two years that has the Legislature dabble in the management of the Judiciary and maybe it is constitutional, maybe not.
Here’s the deal. The Legislature, dabbling, of course, tied the last two years’ judicial budget to a shakeup in court management that most people never heard about: Judges of the state’s 31 judicial districts will elect their local chief judge instead of having the judge appointed by the Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court. Oh, and that chief judge in each of the districts can opt to take over the budget of each district, deciding which judge gets a new desk, more staff, whatever…