The state’s legal system is threatened by a proposed constitutional amendment to keep judges from ordering funding increases for education, a controversial judge said Monday.

“If such an amendment passes, the court will become nothing more than a toothless debating society, and our whole concept of constitutional government will be lost,” Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock said during a speech to the Lawrence Rotary Club.

Bullock authored the original decision ordering the Kansas Legislature to increase school funding. That angered legislators, some of whom have said they will propose an amendment restricting judicial authority.

Bullock urged voters to think long and hard about putting those kind of restrictions on courts.

“Before you do that, stop and think,” Bullock said.

“Next time, it might be you or your children or your grandchildren who need the court’s protection in enforcing our most basic legal values.”

Bullock was preaching largely to the choir Monday. Rotary members gave him a standing ovation. Randy Weseman, superintendent of the Lawrence public schools, was among the audience members.

“It does take money to practice good education, and one size does not fit all,” Weseman said.

Bullock ruled in December 2003 that the state’s school system was vastly underfunded. His decision was ultimately upheld by the state’s Supreme Court, and legislators during the last session increased funding by $148 million – after the court threatened to shut down the school system.

During the last session, two constitutional amendments – both arguing that the court failed to respect the constitution’s separation of powers – passed the Senate but narrowly failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority in the House.

House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, has said that he expects similar constitutional amendments to be debated during the next session.

Bullock said Monday that he believed the amendments were unjustified.

“The court did not write a new funding law of its own,” Bullock said. “It did not take over the schools. It did not appoint an education czar as some states have done. It simply said, ‘Legislature, do your job.’ If that doesn’t respect the separation of powers, I don’t know what would.”

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.