Kansas Supreme Court elections, 2022
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The terms of six Kansas Supreme Court justices expired on January 9, 2023. The six seats were up for retention election on November 8, 2022. The filing deadline was August 1, 2022.[1][2]
Kansas was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and election results
Biles' seat
Kansas Supreme Court, Daniel Biles' seat
Daniel Biles was retained to the Kansas Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 65.2% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
65.2
|
571,967 | ||
No |
34.8
|
305,828 | |||
Total Votes |
877,795 | ||||
|
|
Luckert's seat
Kansas Supreme Court, Marla Luckert's seat
Marla Luckert was retained to the Kansas Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 65.8% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
65.8
|
577,028 | ||
No |
34.2
|
299,524 | |||
Total Votes |
876,552 | ||||
|
|
Standridge's seat
Kansas Supreme Court, Melissa Standridge's seat
Melissa Standridge was retained to the Kansas Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 66.8% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
66.8
|
592,572 | ||
No |
33.2
|
295,029 | |||
Total Votes |
887,601 | ||||
|
|
Stegall's seat
Kansas Supreme Court, Caleb Stegall's seat
Caleb Stegall was retained to the Kansas Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 72.9% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
72.9
|
639,624 | ||
No |
27.1
|
237,864 | |||
Total Votes |
877,488 | ||||
|
|
Wall's seat
Kansas Supreme Court, Kenyen Wall's seat
Keynen Wall was retained to the Kansas Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 64.7% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
64.7
|
567,079 | ||
No |
35.3
|
308,976 | |||
Total Votes |
876,055 | ||||
|
|
Wilson's seat
Kansas Supreme Court, Evelyn Z. Wilson's seat
Evelyn Z. Wilson was retained to the Kansas Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 65.7% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
65.7
|
574,938 | ||
No |
34.3
|
299,941 | |||
Total Votes |
874,879 | ||||
|
|
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Kansas
About the Kansas Supreme Court
- See also: Kansas Supreme Court
The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest court in Kansas. It consists of seven justices, each of whom is appointed by the governor. The court is located at the Kansas Judicial Center in Topeka, Kansas.[3]
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election.
| ■ Daniel Biles | Appointed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) in 2009 | |
| ■ Evelyn Z. Wilson | Appointed by Gov. Laura Kelly (D) in 2019 | |
| ■ Marla Luckert | Appointed by Gov. Bill Graves (R) in 2002 | |
| ■ Keynen Wall | Appointed by Gov. Laura Kelly (D) in 2020 | |
| ■ Eric Rosen | Appointed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) in 2005 | |
| ■ Caleb Stegall | Appointed by Gov. Sam Brownback (R) in 2014 | |
| ■ Melissa Standridge | Appointed by Gov. Laura Kelly (D) in 2020 |
Selection
- See also: Judicial selection in Kansas
Kansas chooses its justices using a selection commission. The Supreme Court Nominating Commission selects three potential candidates for placement as a supreme court justice and presents its recommendations to the governor. The governor must then appoint one justice from the list. If a justice is appointed, he must stand for a retention vote after one year. Justices of the Kansas Supreme Court are elected for terms of six years.[3]
Nominating commission
The Supreme Court Nominating Commission is composed of representatives from each congressional district and, during times of judicial vacancy, is in charge of compiling a list of potential supreme court justices to present to the governor.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must:
- have at least 10 years of active and continuous law practice in the state;
- be at least 30 years old; and
- be no older than 70. If a sitting judge turns 70 while on the bench, he or she may serve out the term.[4]
Removal of justices
Kansas judges, according to Article 2 of the Kansas Constitution, may be removed by impeachment and conviction, by the supreme court on recommendation of the commission on judicial qualifications, or by the governor due to incapacitation.[5][6]
Judges are also removed by a majority of votes against their retention.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 7
- Number of cases: 120
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 90.0% (108)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Daniel Biles (20)
- Per curiam decisions: 17
- Concurring opinions: 16
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justice Caleb Stegall (5)
- Dissenting opinions: 13
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Daniel Biles (5)
For the study's full set of findings in Kansas, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[8]
Kansas had a Court Balance Score of -0.50, indicating Democrat control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2022 ELECTION INFORMATION," accessed February 2, 2022
- ↑ Kansas Judicial Branch, "Become a Judge Through Election," accessed February 2, 2022
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kansas Judicial Branch - Supreme Court Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "supreme" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Kansas," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Kansas Judicial Branch, "Commission on Judicial Qualifications," accessed March 26, 2015
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Selection: Removal of Judges," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Kansas • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Kansas
State courts:
Kansas Supreme Court • Kansas Court of Appeals • Kansas District Courts • Kansas Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Kansas • Kansas judicial elections • Judicial selection in Kansas
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