Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly appointed Leawood attorney Larkin Walsh on Thursday to the Kansas Supreme Court.
Walsh will replace Justice Evelyn Wilson, who announced in March she would step down due to an ALS diagnosis. She is the fourth state Supreme Court justice Kelly has selected since taking office in 2019.
“My twenty years of experience have reinforced my commitment to the fundamental mission of the courts, which is to ensure access to fair and impartial justice through fidelity to the Rule of Law,” Walsh said in a press release from the governor’s office.
Walsh is senior counsel at the Stueve Siegel Hanson law firm. Her work focuses on civil rights law, consumer protection and labor.
“Passionate about holding powerful institutions accountable for turning a blind eye, taking advantage, or otherwise exploiting vulnerable individuals or small businesses, Larkin focuses on high caliber, cutting-edge impact litigation designed to drive institutional change,” her work profile reads.
Walsh was a law clerk in U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas and at the Kansas Supreme Court.
Kelly chose Walsh over two other candidates nominated by a nonpartisan commission, Douglas County District Judge Amy Hanley and Johnson County District Judge K. Christopher Jayaram.
The first retention vote for Justice Walsh will be November 2026. If voters decide to keep her, she will serve 6-year terms between retention votes.
A nonpartisan nominating commission, composed of lawyers and non-lawyers from across the state, narrowed the field from 15 initial candidates.
But this could be the last time Kansas follows that process to select state Supreme Court justices. A proposed amendment to the state constitution on the August 2026 primary ballot will ask Kansas voters if they would rather hold elections for the state’s highest court.
Conservatives have wanted to make that change for years. Calls to elect state Supreme Court justices intensified after the court ruled in 2019 that Kansans have fundamental rights to personal autonomy, including abortion, and in 2016 that the state has legal obligations to fund public education.
Opponents of the change argue justices should not be forced to engage in politics, so they can focus on impartial interpretations of the law. Conservatives, including Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, say the state’s highest court has a liberal slant, and that the current nominating process is undemocratic.
“It is an elitist system,” he said at a February committee hearing on the proposed amendment. “It is obviously controlled by lawyers and I would suggest it reflects the political biases of lawyers.”
Twenty-two states hold direct nonpartisan or partisan elections to their highest court, though procedures vary widely throughout the country.
Kansas has not elected state Supreme Court justices since a political scandal in the 1950s prompted changing to the current system.
After the 2024 elections expanded Republicans’ supermajorities in the state House and Senate, each chamber reached the two-thirds majorities necessary to put the proposed amendment to voters.
Zane Irwin reports on politics, campaigns and elections for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at zaneirwin@kcur.org.
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