Judge criticized by abortion foes named to top Kansas court

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday named a veteran trial-court judge opposed by the state's most influential anti-abortion group to the Kansas Supreme Court, an appointment that's likely to intensify a backlash against the court from conservative legislators.

Kelly's selection of Shawnee County District Judge Evelyn Wilson comes with many Republican lawmakers already seeking to change the process for picking Supreme Court justices to give the GOP-controlled Legislature power it does not have now to block an appointee. Abortion opponents also are pushing for a change in the state constitution to overturn a ruling from the high court in April protecting abortion rights.

Kelly passed over two veteran lawyers who work in Republican state Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office. Kansans for Life, an anti-abortion group long influential in GOP politics, opposed Wilson's appointment because of her husband's past political contributions to Kelly and other abortion-rights candidates.

Wilson will replace former Justice Lee Johnson, who retired in September and was a member of the 6-1 majority in the abortion-rights ruling declaring that access to abortion is a “fundamental” right under the Kansas Constitution. Her appointment is not subject to legislative oversight, but she will face voters in November 2022 for a yes-or-no vote on whether she remains on the court for another six years.

She has been a judge since 2004, appointed to the trial-court bench in the county that includes the state capital, Topeka, by then-Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Wilson has been the county's chief administrative judge since 2014 and before going on the bench was a lawyer in private practice in Topeka and Oberlin, a small, northwest Kansas town near the Nebraska border.