Supreme Court justice a no-show at inauguration

At first it looked like a typo in the official program for the inauguration. Among the list of people to be sworn in on Monday, the program listed Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss and Associate Justice Eric Rosen.

But it was no typo. Nuss was there, not to be sworn in, but to administer the oaths to all the other officials elected in November, including Justice Rosen who won his retention election. But missing from the list was Justice Lee Johnson, who also stood for retention in November.

Asked about Johnson’s absence, Nuss would only say that Johnson had chosen not to participate in the ceremony, but that he would be sworn in at a different time. And the court’s spokeswoman offered no further explanation when she was asked about it later.

“Justice Johnson chose not to participate in the ceremonial swearing-in, but he will be sworn in by the chief justice and will sign his oath today,” spokeswoman Lisa Taylor said.

Although his absence may have been unrelated, there has been a palpable tension in recent years between the court and Republicans who control the Legislature and governor’s office.

Much of that stems from earlier decisions in school finance cases when the court ordered the Legislature to appropriate more money for public schools. But it was inflamed last year when the court vacated the death sentences of two convicted killers, Jonathan and Reginald Carr. Brownback and other Republicans used that issue to openly campaign against retaining Rosen and Johnson, the only two justices up for retention last year.

Both justices survived their retentions, but by much smaller margins than normal. Rosen was retained with 52.7 percent of the vote; Johnson with 52.6 percent.