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THE GAZETTE, EMPORIA, KANSAS
“The Gazette pokes a great deal of fun at the
clubs, but they are nevertheless doing more for
Emporia and for humanity in general than The
Gazette, and that’s not saying much.”
WL W
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Wednesday, March 9, 2016
“People, watching the steel fingers mesh so gently,
so surely, so irresistibly, guessed that pretty soon all
work would be done by machinery!”
WILLIAM LINDSAY WHITE
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
VISUAL VOICES
TEG
William Allen White, 1895-1944
William Lindsay White, 1944-1973
Kathrine Klinkenberg White, 1973-1988
Christopher White Walker
Editor and Publisher
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Ashley Knecht Walker
Editor
NEWSROOM
Brandy Lee Nance
Online and News Editor
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Features Editor
MANAGEMENT
Margie Sue McHaley
Production Manager
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Heather Dale Wedel
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Leann Marie Sanchez
Regional Publications
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Barbara White Walker
Senior Editor
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Paul David Walker
Publisher Emeritus
C O M M E N TA RY
Seems low
EDITORIAL
If you can’t
beat ‘em,
impeach ‘em
T
HE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS
who control the Kansas Legislature
and the governor’s office won’t be
happy until they also control the Kansas Supreme Court.
There is no other explanation for a bill the Senate Judiciary Committee considered Thursday that
would create new grounds to impeach Supreme
Court justices. Not only does the bill not pertain to
legislators and other state officials, it even excludes
appellate and other judges. It targets Supreme Court
justices.
The most conspicuous offensive ground for impeachment would be for usurping the Legislature.
That is intended solely to intimidate justices from ruling that any acts of the Legislature are unlawful. This
would leave no check on the Legislature’s errors or
excesses — no entity that could hold the Legislature
accountable to the Kansas Constitution, which has
been necessary in recent years. The Legislature and
governor could do whatever they want with impunity.
State Sen. Mitch Holmes, a St. John Republican,
supports the bill. He cited several recent rulings in
which he said the Supreme Court exceeded its authority. Foremost among them were the Supreme
Court’s rulings that the Legislature’s school funding
laws violated the state Constitution, even recently
setting a deadline to make funding equitable. The
Supreme Court also overturned as unconstitutional
a law that changed the way chief district court judges
are chosen.
“Courts have the ability to harm society with their
decisions,” Sen. Holmes said. “And impeachment was
what our founders intended to be a check and a balance on an unchecked system, or what has evolved
into an unchecked system.”
What Sen. Holmes doesn’t realize is that the state
Supreme Court is protecting Kansans from acts of the
Legislature that are illegal and harm society. Should
this bill become law, it will be the Legislature and governor that usurp the authority of the Supreme Court
— and operate unchecked.
Among other grounds for impeachment would be
discourteous behavior, reckless conduct and personal
misconduct. Before Kansas lawmakers even consider
impeaching a member of the state’s highest co W'Bf