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Monday, May 22, 2006

Courts - "Kansas Justice's Lunchtime Chat Leads to Ethics Probe"

"Kansas Justice's Lunchtime Chat Leads to Ethics Probe" is the headline to an AP story today. Some quotes:

A lunchtime conversation about school-funding legislation has led to an unprecedented ethics investigation of a Kansas Supreme Court justice.

Justice Lawton Nuss had lunch with two state lawmakers at a Mexican restaurant in March as legislators were debating proposals to satisfy court mandates to increase school funding.

Nuss and his lunch companions, Senate President Steve Morris and Sen. Pete Brungardt, have all said that Nuss brought a spreadsheet with him, comparing numbers for various school finance alternatives, seeking to clarify those numbers. The court and the two lawmakers said the topic was discussed for about five minutes.

Nuss removed himself from the school finance lawsuit April 20 after the court's chief justice learned of the conversation.

Nuss has until June 1 to respond to a complaint accusing him of violating the code of judicial conduct. It is the first ethics complaint against a justice in the 32-year history of the state Commission on Judicial Qualifications. * * *

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline has also opened an inquiry, on a complaint brought by another senator. And a special state House committee is expected to look into whether the conversation influenced the Legislature's recent approval of a three-year, $541 million school finance plan.

"If certain individuals are getting insider information, then the rest of us are working under a handicap," said Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, a committee member.

Prohibitions against discussing litigation are a universal part of codes of judicial conduct.

Bill Dressel, president of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nev., said trial judges are probably more alert to the prohibition because they work alone. Appeals courts are more collegial because decisions are made by the group.

"Sometimes it just doesn't become second nature to them," he said.

Here is an April 23rd ILB entry on the Kansas story.

In addition, see this April 29th ILB entry, titled "Allegations in yet a third state of collusion between Justices and Legislators."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 22, 2006 07:02 AM
Posted to Courts in general