Topeka ? After languishing for more than a year, a proposed constitutional amendment to require Senate confirmation of state Supreme Court justices will be debated Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt told the chamber Monday he planned to bring up the proposal. When introduced last February, it had 28 sponsors – one more than the two-thirds majority needed to clear the chamber.

“It’s time to have that debate and settle that issue,” said Schmidt, R-Independence.

Many legislators have been upset because the court last year mandated additional funding for public schools, and because it struck down the death penalty in 2004.

The death penalty ruling was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and officials are awaiting a decision from that court.

It marks the first time this year either chamber has debated a proposal to change how the seven justices are appointed. Kansas is among 23 states where justices are selected by a system known as merit selection.

Since 1958, a nominating commission in Kansas considers applicants and then presents the governor with three finalists from which to pick one. Justices face a retention vote every six years.

The proposed amendment would add the requirement of Senate approval before a justice could serve. Seven states with merit selection require Senate confirmation, and Connecticut requires approval by the House and Senate.

If passed by at least a two-thirds majority of the Legislature, the proposal then must be ratified by voters to become part of the Kansas Constitution.

The court’s order for the Legislature to spend an additional $143 million for education forced a special session last summer so lawmakers could come up with the extra money. Many legislators complained the justices overstepped their authority and they needed to be reined in.

During that time, the Senate passed two proposed amendments directed at the court, but the House couldn’t muster enough votes to pass either.

One said only the Legislature can appropriate money and the other would have prevented courts from closing schools to force legislators to obey judicial orders on education funding.

Efforts to chip away at the judiciary continued this year, but so far only the Senate proposal has reached floor debate.

A plan to abolish merit selection and replace it with appointment by the governor with Senate confirmation was shot down in a House committee.