To the editor:

Kansans should not be deceived into thinking that the campaign to “vote NO on activist judges” (Journal-World, Oct. 23) is about the Carr murder case. That case was settled in 2014; the sadistic murderers were not set free; the Kansas Supreme Court decision in question only involved significant errors in the sentencing phase, not in the guilty verdict, and was in any case overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

What the campaign is about is giving Gov. Sam Brownback and his cohorts immediate control over the judicial branch of Kansas government and shaping the court for decades to come. That court could support their political ideology on the two main issues hidden behind the Carr smokescreen: school funding and abortion. Brownback and Co. may not (or may) want to destroy public schools, but having driven Kansas government to the brink of bankruptcy, they are loath to take on the responsibility for adequately funding public education, K through 16. They may not (or may) be cynically manipulating abortion as a wedge issue, but its emotive power as a rallying cry for activist citizens (not judges) is not lost on any politician.

“An activist court is a court that makes a decision you don’t like” ( Justice Anthony Kennedy). Base your vote on the judge’s qualifications, not on political propaganda. Let’s retain the independence of the Kansas judiciary, as our constitution intended.