Kansas District Court Finds Judges May Solicit Money
Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom
1 South 6th Street
Terre Haute, IN 47807-3510
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Contact: James Bopp, Jr.
Phone 812/232-2434; Fax 812/235-3685; jboppjr@aol.com
Kansas District Court Finds Judges May Solicit Money
On Monday, November 24, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas held unconstitutional provisions of the Kansas Code of Judicial Conduct banning judicial candidates from personally soliciting campaign contributions on their own behalf.
Eric Yost, a state district court judge in Sedgwick County, had sought to personally solicit funds for his 2008 re-election campaign. He was prevented from doing so, however, by two canons in the Kansas Code requiring all campaign solicitation to be done through intermediaries, and prohibiting personal solicitation by judges and judicial candidates. On October 31, 2006, Judge Yost brought suit in federal district court, claiming that the provisions violated his First Amendment rights as a candidate.
The District Court agreed, finding that Kansas’s solicitation clauses were unconstitutional and unnecessary restrictions on the ability of Judge Yost and other judicial candidates to secure funding for their campaign, and stating that the provision did not prevent any corrupting influence a contributor might have over a judicial candidate because the candidate could still find out whom his or her supporters were.
The United States Supreme Court has held unconstitutional a Minnesota rule that prohibited judicial candidates from “announc[ing] their views on disputed legal or political issues.” Since then, federal courts of appeals have found other provisions, such as the solicitation clauses, unconstitutional, using the Supreme Court’s rationale.
James Bopp, Jr., lead counsel for Judge Yost, believes a great victory has been won for Kansas judicial candidates: “Raising funds is an ordinary and necessary part of any election campaign, and judicial candidates have the right to personally solicit funds for their campaigns for office.” Mr. Bopp successfully argued the case challenging the Minnesota judicial rule struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 U.S. 765 (2002).
The case is Yost v. Stout, et al., Civil Action Number 5:06-cv-04122-JAR. The District Court’s decision is available in PDF format online at the James Madison Center’s website, www.jamesmadisoncenter.org, under the “Judicial Accountability Project” link.
James Bopp, Jr. has a national federal and state election law practice. He is General Counsel for the James Madison Center for Free Speech and Co-Chairman of the Election Law Subcommittee of the Federalist Society.