TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Kansas Supreme Court is heading into a year in which it could play a significant role in state government by making major rulings on school funding and abortion, and seeking higher pay for court employees. The court also could make decisions in the kinds of capital punishment cases that put four justices at risk of losing their seats in the 2016 election.
Here’s a look at big cases and major issues facing the state’s highest court in 2017.
SCHOOL FUNDING
Educators, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the GOP-controlled Legislature are waiting for the Supreme Court’s ruling on whether lawmakers spend enough money on public schools to provide a suitable education for every child.
The court heard arguments in September on that question and could rule any time.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed by four school districts in 2010 that argues the $4.1 billion a year that Kansas provides to its 286 local districts is roughly $800 million short of what’s required under the state constitution.
The state argues that its annual spending is sufficient. Republican leaders hope that even if the court disagrees, justices don’t set a target amount for a spending increase - though the high court did just that in decisions in 2005 and 2006 in a previous lawsuit.
The court’s decision will come as Brownback and legislators work to close projected state budget shortfalls totaling $1.1 billion through June 2019.
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ABORTION LAWSUIT
The high court could reshape abortion policy with a decision in a lawsuit filed by two doctors challenging a first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure.
The 2015 law prohibits doctors from using forceps or similar instruments on a live fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces. The statute calls the procedure “dismemberment abortion,” a phrase coined by abortion opponents.
A Shawnee County judge temporarily blocked the ban’s enforcement and ruled that the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights independently of the U.S. Constitution. The Kansas Court of Appeals split 7-7 on the state constitutional issue a year ago, keeping the judge’s ruling in place.
If the Kansas Supreme Court agrees that the state constitution provides its own protections for abortion rights, abortion opponents fear that state courts could reject abortion restrictions even if they’ve been upheld by federal courts.
The justices haven’t set arguments in the case.
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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The high court received strong criticism for overturning the first seven death sentences it reviewed under a 1994 law reinstating capital punishment in Kansas. But since December 2015, justices have upheld three men’s death sentences.
The state has yet to set any execution dates, with several more appeals pending.
The next appeal likely to be ruled upon is from James Kraig Kahler. He was convicted of shooting his estranged wife, their two teenage daughters and her grandmother at the grandmother’s home outside Burlingame in 2009.
The court heard arguments in December. Another six capital cases are before the court.
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POLITICAL CONTEXT
The Supreme Court’s capital punishment rulings, decisions in past school funding lawsuits and its coming ruling in the abortion case all spurred a campaign last year to oust four of the seven justices in the November election.
Justices are appointed by the governor but face a statewide yes-or-no retention vote every six years. Four justices up for retention votes in November were targeted by murder victims’ family members, anti-abortion groups and GOP conservatives, but the effort failed.
Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said in an Associated Press interview last week that the anti-retention campaigns won’t influence court decisions.
“We’re sworn to support the constitution,” Nuss said. “We cannot be concerned about what people say about us.”
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JUDICIAL BUDGET
The Kansas Constitution gives the state Supreme Court general authority over all state court operations. That power has prompted Nuss to jump into the Legislature’s annual budget debates since he became chief justice in 2010.
This year, he’s advocating higher salaries after two studies by the National Center on State Courts concluded that every job classification in the state’s judicial system is paid below market rates.
The raises Nuss is seeking - up to 22 percent for some employees - would cost about $20 million a year.
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