In this Monday, Dec. 14, 2015 file photo, Kansas Supreme Court Justices prepare to hear arguments during a session in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File)

Douglas County Democrats received a call to action Saturday to support Kansas Supreme Court justices up for retention on the November general election ballot.

“The stakes could not be higher,” said Ryan Wright, executive director of the Kansas Values Institute. “With all due respect to office holders in the audience, the retention of justices is the single-most important thing on the ballot for Democrats in Kansas.”

Wright was part of a panel discussion at a seminar organized by Douglas County Democrats on Saturday at the Lawrence Arts Center. Also on the panel were Kansas Values Institute Chairman Dan Watkins, retired Kansas University law professor Martin Dickinson and former Kansas Supreme Court Justice Fred Six. Dickinson spoke on the current vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court and President Barack Obama’s challenge to fill it, while the other three men focused on the Kansas Supreme Court and judiciary system.

Wright and Watkins said there would be well-funded campaigns by Kansans for Life and its conservative political allies to unseat four of the five Kansas Supreme Count justices up for retention on the November ballot. The justices were appointed by former Kansas Govs. Kathleen Sebelius and Bill Graves.

Polls showed support for retaining the justices, but that could change as “outside” money flooded into the state, Wright said. Retention foes can raise unlimited funds because Kansas campaign finance laws do not pertain to justice retention bids. Justices, on the other hand, are limited by ethics, both in fundraising and campaigning, he said.

“Judges can’t talk about cases, nor should they,” Wright said. “They were intentionally made nonpoliticians for a reason.”

The Kansas Values Institute was raising funds to counter the bid and supporting efforts to educate the public on the retention issue, Wright said.

The Kansas Supreme Court has been under fire for a decade from conservatives at odds with rulings on such issues as education funding and abortion, Wright and Watkins said. There have been 55 measures introduced in the Legislature in the past three years that would change the process of selecting judges, make their impeachment easier, defund the state’s judiciary system and constrain judges’ actions, they said. The state’s judiciary system is currently operating on an emergency order because of the Legislature’s dissatisfaction with its decisions.

Conservatives have attempted to reshape the court by replacing the state’s current nonpolitical merit-based system of appointing Supreme Court justices, the panelists said. Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed two different constitutional measures to achieve that goal. He first called for a modified federal system of the Senate confirming a gubernatorial appointment and now advocates for their direct elections, Watkins said. Brownback’s proposals have thus far failed to get the support of two-thirds of the Legislature required to pass constitution amendments.

As for Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Count, Dickinson said he was “not sure I see a happy ending for this.” His concern was about the precedent established by Senate Republicans’ “dereliction of duty” in refusing to consider Garland, he said.

Should it prove successful, there would be no reason for Senate Democrats to consider any nomination from Donald Trump or Ted Cruz should one be elected president, or Republicans to consider any nominations from Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, Dickinson said.

The failure to consider Garland also would convince future presidents there was no advantage to nominating moderates, Dickinson said. That could lead to the appointment of justices with more extreme views and further political polarization of the court, he said.

There was nothing that could force the Senate to act, Dickinson said. That left it to the electorate to insist senators do their constitutional duty, starting with Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley.

“He’s 82 years old running for his seventh term,” Dickinson said. “I think it’s really important for the people of Iowa to say, ‘We’re not going to elect people to the Senate who won’t perform their constitutional duties.”