The Kansas Supreme Court will not hear a lawsuit from several state judges, including Lyon County Administrative Judge Merlin Wheeler, that sought to bolster funding to the judiciary branch as a whole.
The Supreme Court issued an order Wednesday dismissing the case, which demanded the Legislature fully fund budget requests for the rest of this fiscal year and in fiscal 2021 starting in July. A news release says the state high court looked to similar cases in other states and decided against scheduling any hearings because the evidence and legal issues would take “significant time” to resolve and would impact funding discussions between the legislative and judicial branches of government.
The lawsuit was filed after judges and a court employee alleged a “chronic, persistent disregard of the demonstrated funding needs.” The petitioners also said that lack of proper funding violated the separation of powers doctrine and the Supreme Court’s administrative authority over all state courts.
Petitioners, including Wheeler, have not commented. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, however, says the “court should no more decide the size of its own budget than the Legislature should decide the constitutionality of the laws it enacts.”
