By Daniel Scharpenburg

Something extraordinary is happening to the federal labor movement.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have seen collective bargaining rights stripped away or dramatically weakened. Contracts that took years to negotiate have been declared terminated. Union representatives …

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Some people don’t even know that there’s an election in August. Not only do we get the opportunity to vote in primaries, (I’m voting for Cindy Holscher to be the Democratic nominee for Governor) but also there’s an amendment that the people get to vote on.

All Kansans can vote on this amendment this year, regardless of party affiliation. If you were around in 2022 then you may remember there was a proposed amendment that was voted down that year. Some activists worked hard to make sure the word got out about that one. Activists are working hard to get the word out on this one too.

Some necessary back story:

Right now Kansas Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the Governor based on a list put together by a non-partisan group called the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission.

There’s an amendment we’re voting on in August to change that. The amendment would make Kansas Supreme Court Justice an elected office with a 6 year term.

That sounds like a good thing, like letting the people decide.

Here’s the thing. We shouldn’t want partisan politics in everything. That’s what we’re talking about opening the door to. Not only that, but money. If these positions are elected, then that means lots of money will be funneled into those elections, because that’s the world we live in now. There is too much money in politics and we should not want more of that.

Judges would be beholden to donors.

If every judge fears becoming the next target of a million-dollar attack campaign, then eventually judges stop acting independently altogether. Or it gets a lot harder to act independently, anyway. It gets a lot harder to judge the law on it’s own merits, which is the job of a judge at that level.

Who benefits when every Supreme Court seat requires statewide campaign infrastructure?

Not ordinary workers in KCK. Not teachers in Wichita. Not union members in Overland Park. Not struggling families in Topeka.

The winners are people who already have the resources and know how to buy influence.

Corporate political networks love judicial elections because courts matter enormously for labor law, environmental regulation, voting rights, consumer protections, and public power. If wealthy interests can shape courts through campaign spending, they gain another tool to lock in power even if they can’t get the laws passed that they want.

This is against the interest of We the People.

There is another thing.

Rumor is this is a backdoor effort to move toward banning abortion in Kansas.

Some back story.

In 2019 the Kansas Supreme Court declared that the right to an abortion is protected in the Kansas State Constitution because there’s a line in there about the right to bodily autonomy.

In 2022 there was an effort to amend the constitution to take that out. That resulted in a statewide vote. Nearly 60% of the Kansans that voted struck down that amendment.

Democracy in action.

If Kansas Supreme Court Justices become elected and ones with anti-choice views get into office, they could rule differently. We saw this happen at the national level. A Supreme Court in the passed made the Roe decision, and a later Supreme Court made a different decision.

That could happen at the Kansas level.

So, if you feel strongly that money in politics is a problem, you have the chance to speak out August 4th.

And if you feel strongly that abortion should remain legal and safe, you have the chance to speak out August 4th.

When I think about abortion bans, I worry about women dying because their doctor is afraid to perform an abortion when they need one to save their life.

Protect America’s Workforce Act

Restore Union Rights for Federal Employees

Now they’re openly violating the law by not releasing all of the Epstein files. Congress passed the Epstein Transparency Act and the administration is just deciding what to release instead of releasing everything.

They had a deadline to release it all.

This is what we mean when we say No Kings.

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