Supreme Court dismisses judicial branch funding case

TOPEKA―The Kansas Supreme Court issued an order today dismissing a case brought by several trial judges and a court employee against the Kansas Legislature asking the court to compel the Legislature to fully fund the judicial branch's budget requests in fiscal years 2020 and 2021.

In making its ruling, the court looked to similar cases in other states and concluded that the "difficult evidentiary and legal issues" in the case would take significant time to resolve, and "such proceedings necessarily impede crucial inter-branch discussions aimed at allowing the Legislature to fulfill its constitutional obligation to fund the judicial branch."

The petitioners filed Case No. 122267 with the Supreme Court December 20, alleging the Kansas Legislature's "chronic, persistent disregard of the demonstrated funding needs" of the Kansas judicial branch violated, among other things, the separation of powers doctrine and the Supreme Court's general administrative authority over all Kansas courts as set out in the Kansas Constitution.