Image: Kansas State Supreme Court Judicial Center in Topeka, Kansas.Dennis Macdonald / Getty Images

The networks of two major players who helped capture the U.S. Supreme Court — anti-abortion lawyer Leonard Leo and oil billionaire Charles Koch — have also long targeted state courts to advance their regressive agenda. One of their tactics, influencing the way that state justices are selected nationwide, is being borne out in Kansas.

On August 4, voters in Kansas will decide the fate of a state constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by the Republican legislature. Four major groups involved in campaigns around the amendment have raised nearly $12 million, according to the Sunflower State Journal. If the amendment succeeds, it would replace Kansas’s historic merit selection process for selecting state supreme court justices with direct elections. Despite trying to convince voters that the amendment would be a win for democracy, dark money groups and their backers are supporting the ballot initiative as a way to further expand their own special interest influence and open the door to bigger spending in the state’s selection of judges…”

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