Brownback appoints former aide Stegall to Kansas Supreme Court

Gov. Sam Brownback on Friday named his former chief counsel Caleb Stegall to a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court. Stegall has served on the Kansas Court of Appeals since January.

? Gov. Sam Brownback on Friday named his former chief counsel to a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court.

Caleb Stegall, of Lawrence, has served on the Kansas Court of Appeals since January. Before joining Brownback’s office in 2011, he had been the prosecutor in Jefferson County for two years.

Stegall replaces former Justice Nancy Moritz, who has taken a seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I believe Caleb Stegall to be one of the most qualified people ever to go on the Kansas Supreme Court,” Brownback said during an announcement ceremony where reporters were not allowed to ask questions.

In his own remarks, Stegall paid homage to Moritz by paraphrasing one of her last opinions on the Kansas bench.

“I will strive every day to labor under no compulsion other than that ever-present compulsion to follow the law rather than my personal opinions,” Stegall said.

That was a reference to Moritz’s dissent earlier this year in the death penalty appeal of convicted killers Jonathan and Reginald Carr. Moritz was the lone justice on the court to say their convictions and death sentences should have been upheld.

As a private attorney before joining Brownback’s office, Stegall was involved in several high-profile cases including the defense of former Attorney General Phill Kline in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood over Kline’s access to the medical records of women who’d had abortions.

He also represented Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office in the 2012 redistricting lawsuit after the Kansas Legislature had failed to pass a bill redrawing legislative and congressional districts following the 2012 Census.

Last year, Stegall became the first judge appointed to the Court of Appeals under a new law that allows the governor to make appointments, subject to Senate confirmation. Before that, governors had to choose from among three nominees sent to them by a non-partisan nominating committee, and Stegall had twice been passed over for an appointment under that system.

But the Kansas Constitution still requires Supreme Court justices to be named through a merit-based selection process where a nominating committee interviews candidates and sends three nominees to the governor.

In choosing Stegall, Brownback passed over two other nominees: Karen Arnold-Burger, who served as a municipal judge in Overland Park for 20 years before she was named to the Kansas Court of Appeals in 2011; and Merlin G. Wheeler, a district court judge in Emporia.

“Once again, Sam Brownback put his own political agenda before the best interests of Kansans,” said Rep. Paul Davis, of Lawrence, Brownback’s Democratic challenger in this year’s election. “Instead of choosing a judge with more than 20 years on the bench, he chose his political ally with less than nine months of judicial experience to fill a vacancy on Kansas’ highest court.”

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka, who opposed Stegall’s appointment to the appellate court last year, said he still considers him unqualified.

“By skipping over two highly qualified nominees and selecting someone with so little experience, Governor Brownback has once again shown that rewarding a political ally is far more important than doing what’s best for the people of Kansas,” Hensley said.

Stegall said it hasn’t been decided when he will take his seat on the bench. Former Douglas County District Judge Michael Malone, who retired this month, had been expected to serve as a senior judge on the Supreme Court until the vacant seat is filled.

Stegall is Brownback’s first appointment to the Supreme Court. At age 42, he also becomes the youngest justice on the bench.

Previously, Brownback had said his friend and former aide was not a shoo-in for the high court vacancy. Stegall will not require state Senate confirmation.

Stegall’s appointment by Brownback to the lower court last year drew criticism because of his ties to the governor and Stegall’s past writings.

An online magazine Stegall edited in 2005 encouraged “forcible resistance” to state and federal court orders to save the life of a brain-damaged Florida woman, though he later said it only advocated civil disobedience. In a 2008 online newspaper chat, he called the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic 1973 ruling legalizing abortion across the nation “weak.”

Stegall graduated third in his law school class at the University of Kansas in 1999, and later served as a clerk for then-Chief Judge Deanell Tacha of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He opened a law office outside Lawrence in 2005.