The Kansas State Supreme Court sanctioned right-wing nutjob Phill Kline on Friday and referred him for disciplinary action that could result in disbarment in the Planned Parenthood records case.
In a theme that seems to be an increasingly common description of Republicans these days, the court opinion said "Kline exhibits little, if any, respect for the authority of this court or for his responsibility to it and to the rule of law..."
While Planned Parenthood is lauding (video) the court's Kline smackdown, Kline is crowing (more video) that the decision allows the persecution of women's reproductive health care providers to continue.
As Kansas AG from 2002-2006, Kline subpoenaed women's medical records in a witch-hunt against Planned Parenthood in Overland Park and Dr. George Tiller in Wichita. There was national coverage of the patient privacy issues at hand and the records were ordered released in the Alpha decision to Kline with patient identification redacted, because
"The type of information sought by the State here could hardly be more sensitive, or the potential harm to patient privacy posed by disclosure more substantial."
When he lost his bid for re-election in 2006, Kline was appointed Johnson County distict attorney. To continue his witch-hunt, Kline had the records moved to his new office. Kline apparently disregarded the normal ethical procedures for handling sensitive private data as well as the court order from Alpha. Now the court harshly reprimands Kline for violating their previous orders protecting the privacy of the records. The ruling eviscerates Kline's "grossly incompetent" handling of the records, which were left in employee's cars and dining rooms and copied at a Kinko's during the transfer; and for an appearance on O'Liely (caution, bloviating idiot ahead) that made it appear that Bill "O'Falafel" Reilly had been given access to the records. (A judge ruled that he had not but according to yesterday's decision later said "he was 'very upset' with Kline for putting himself in a position allowing O'Reilly to claim he had seen the redacted patient records.")
While Kline could be on his way to losing his license to practice law, fellow right-wing nutjobs are claiming victory and Johnson County may continue to persecute Planned Parenthood in Overland Park. The headline of the press release from Kansans For Life reads "KANSAS SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS KLINE. DESPITE SPIN, DECISION DOES NOT STOP OR UNDERMINE CASE" (sorry, refuse to drive traffic for them with links, go to kfl.org if you can stand it.)
The Court did not order Kline to turn over the Planned Parenthood records he took with him from the AG's office, but rather ruled that he couldn't leave the AG's office, now in control of Democrat Steve Six, without copies of the investigative materials procured at the taxpayer's expense and therefore must provide copies back to the AG.
Update: From the comments - don't miss Frederick Clarkson's astonishing diary up now that asks "Will Bush Pardon An Anti-Abortion Terrorist?" The anti-choice domestic terrorist is the attempted murderer of Dr. George Tiller.
I may wind up having to leave, so please don't think of this as a hit-and-run diary, but as some little chunks of information otherwise passing us by to spice up another morning of news about Sarah Palin's hair and makeup.