Kansas Republicans push referendum to elect state Supreme Court justices

On Aug. 4, Kansas voters will decide whether to replace the state’s merit-based Supreme Court selection system with direct elections, a change Republicans say would give the public control over a court that has repeatedly upheld abortion rights. The ballot fight is over who gets to interpret the law after voters already rejected an anti-abortion amendment.

Kansas now selects its seven Supreme Court justices through a system created by a 1958 constitutional amendment. A nine-member Supreme Court Nominating Commission screens applicants and sends three finalists to the governor for each vacancy, then justices face a retention vote after their first full year on the bench and every six years after that.

The proposal would move the court to six-year elected terms, with the first elections for positions 1, 2 and 3 in 2028, positions 4 and 5 in 2030, and positions 6 and 7 in 2032.

In 2019, the Kansas Supreme Court held in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt that Section 1 of the Kansas Bill of Rights protects abortion rights. In July 2024, the court reaffirmed that ruling and struck down additional abortion restrictions. Then, in August 2022, Kansas voters rejected by roughly 59% to 41% a constitutional amendment that would have removed abortion protections from the Kansas Constitution.

Supporters of the election proposal argue that voters should have direct control over a court deciding major disputes over abortion, school funding and other constitutional questions. Opponents warn that judicial elections would make justices more vulnerable to donor pressure and partisan campaigning, shifting the court closer to the political fights that the 1958 reform was designed to curb.

Kansas once elected its justices before the switch to merit selection, a change rooted in the reform backlash after former Gov. Fred Hall’s triple play scandal.