The War of Judicial Independence: Letters from the Kansas Front

Dear Readers: To many observers, ongoing efforts around the country to assert political control over the judiciary have some of the characteristics of war—including innocent civilian casualties. Nationally, the battle to fill Justice Scalia’s seat on the United States Supreme Court was fierce. Here in Kansas, political efforts to control the courts, particularly the Kansas Supreme Court, garnered national attention. Most recently, in the fall 2016 elections, conservative groups mounted a well-financed effort to unseat four Supreme Court justices (Lawton R. Nuss, Carol A. Beier, Dan Biles, and Marla J. Luckert). The results of the elections in the State of Kansas, however, ran somewhat