Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Marla Luckert has stayed a Johnson County ruling that said parts of the state’s emergency management law updated earlier this year were unconstitutional.
Last month, a Johnson County judge said a provision allowing residents to sue cities and counties if they were “aggrieved” by those entities’ usage of COVID-19 mitigation protocols could lead to “legal anarchy” and was unconstitutional. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt appealed and asked Johnson County to stay that decision pending results of the appeal, saying the pertinent section had expired with the end of the state’s emergency declaration and the issue was now a moot point. With the district court denying that motion, Schmidt made the same point to the Supreme Court.
The high court could officially look at the Johnson County decision next month.
