Leawood Kan. — September 15, 2022: The Judicial Nominating Commission for the Johnson County (Kansas) District Court recently recommended five attorneys to Kansas Governor Laura Kelly for potential appointment to one of three newly created district court judge positions. The Kansas Legislature created the new positions based on the increasing caseload of existing judges. Rouse Frets attorney Greg Musil served on the 14-member Commission, which reviewed and interviewed twenty-seven applicants for the three positions.
For nearly 50 years, the judges on the Johnson County District Court have been selected by a nominating commission comprised of Johnson County citizens, with an equal number of non-lawyer and lawyer residents. The current Nominating Commission has seven non-lawyer members, each appointed by one of the seven County Commissioners, and seven lawyers elected by Kansas licensed attorneys living in Johnson County.
Elected by the Johnson County attorneys to be one of the attorneys on the Commission, Greg Musil is serving his fifth year on the Commission. Greg is a passionate advocate for continuation of the merit selection system for Kansas judges instead of more political options. Under merit selection, the citizens sitting on the Nominating Commission are charged with investigating, interviewing and recommending three to five judicial candidates to the Kansas Governor for each judge position, with the Governor then selecting the judge from those nominees.
“The merit system minimizes politics because of the diversity of the Commission members and maximizes local control by placing the nominating authority in the hands of Johnson County citizens,” Musil said after completion of the recent two day effort to recommend the new candidates. “I’m proud of how hard the Commission worked on this and previous nominations. Spending two full days interviewing candidates is a worthy sacrifice to continue the tradition of strong judges in our county.”
Musil chaired Johnson Countians for Justice in 2008 when Johnson County voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to change from a merit selection system to a straight partisan election for judges.
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