State Update

Kansas judge admonished

A while back I pointed out a story about a Kansas Supreme Court judge who caused a stir by talking to Senate leaders about the state's funding of schools. On Friday, Justice Lawton Nuss was reprimanded for violating the state judicial canons but not otherwise punished. Nuss had already apologized and recused himself from the school funding case.

Crossing the rotunda... to testify

This could make for some tense moments. A committee of the Kansas House is launching hearings to sort out a controversy surrounding top senators and a state Supreme Court judge.

The panel wants to know more about a meeting between the judge and Senate leaders, where the group discussed how to comply with the Supreme Court's school funding edict -- even though the court is in the middle of a school funding case. But the committee isn't charged with investigating the judge's conduct. It's supposed to figure out if the privileged information affected legislative action (like the school funding bill the Kansas legislature passed this spring) and how to avoid similar situations in the future.

Even stranger, the House committee has called the Senate president to testify. The AP reports (the Lawrence Journal World site where the AP story appears also has links to several related resources):

The House committee is investigating whether the Legislature’s approval of a three-year, $541 million school finance plan was influenced by a March 1 lunchtime conversation between Justice Lawton Nuss and Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, and Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, a longtime Nuss friend.

Participants said the discussion about education funding lasted about five minutes, with Nuss showing the others a spreadsheet comparing numbers of various alternatives.

An education funding lawsuit is still before the court, with legislators facing a mandate to increase aid to public schools. The state’s code of Judicial Conduct prohibits a justice from discussing pending cases with outsiders.

Oh yeah, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) and her chief of staff could also be testifying.

A landslide of legislation

The Los Angeles Times reports today about the "landslide of legislation" that followed the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial eminent domain decision in Kelo v. City of New London last spring.

The final paragraph of the majority opinion in Kelo essentially invited legislatures to make their own rules on eminent domain if they didn't like the decision. Almost every state commenced to do just that.

Delaware moved first, permitting eminent domain to be used only for a recognized public purpose. Alabama, Ohio and Texas passed bills barring the use of eminent domain to increase tax revenue or promote private development. In November, Michigan voters will cast ballots on an amendment that would prohibit the taking of property for economic development.

In recent weeks, Utah, Kansas and New Hampshire limited eminent domain, as did Indiana, Idaho, West Virginia, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Maryland has more than 40 Kelo-inspired eminent domain bills pending. California has at least a dozen.

Obviously, the court touched a nerve. But the reaction was both broad and swift. Stateline.org reported on the backlash against the decision only a month after the decision came down.

Strange but true...

Truth is stranger than fiction, as today's news continues to prove:

• Wild pigs, err, feral hogs, are out of control in Texas
• Michigan Republicans call in the police in response to Dems' press conference
• A mother of a high school girl killed by a tiger while posing for her senior pictures tells Kansas legislators to ban many exotic pets
• And a yard-obsessed man killed a teenage boy for stepping on his grass, according to police