MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.
In its nearly 40-year history, the Kansas Court of Appeals had never reached a tie vote until it was asked to decide whether the state constitution guarantees the right to an abortion.
The full court of 14 judges announced on Jan. 22 it had reached a 7-7 split that essentially affirmed a lower court’s ruling that prevented a ban on a second-trimester abortion procedure from taking effect.
Prior to meeting in December to hear arguments in the abortion case, the court had not met as a whole since 1983 to hear a case.
The court’s makeup since its creation in 1977 is the main reason it took so long for the judges to deadlock on an issue.
Nearly all cases are heard by three-judge panels, which allows the state’s second-highest court to consider far more cases than the Kansas Supreme Court, which always meets as a whole — or in judicial parlance, en banc.
Of the 25 instances of en banc meetings of the court, 24 occurred between 1977 and 1983. The other was the abortion case.
The court consisted of seven judges until 1987, when it grew to 10. It later added three more to return to an odd number before adding a 14th.
The state attorney general’s office is asking the Kansas Supreme Court to hear the abortion matter, which the high court is expected to do. In his appeal, solicitor general Stephen McAllister focused on the unusual Court of Appeals ruling.
“The en banc Court of Appeals affirmed the district court, but its decision has no precedential value because the court was equally divided on the result, with a 7-7 tie vote,” McAllister wrote to Supreme Court justices. “Thus, only this court can provide an authoritative answer to the important constitutional questions presented here.”
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents abortion providers in the case, had until Monday to file a response to McAllister’s request. The Kansas Supreme Court will decide soon after whether to hear the case.
