There are times where if it wasn't real, it would be unbelievably funny... but since it is in fact, real, it is dire and sad.
http://www.kansascity.com/...
Kansas appeals court Judge Caleb Stegall, a staunch abortion opponent critical of a landmark school-funding case, was named to the state’s high court on Friday by Gov. Sam Brownback.
Brownback culminated Stegall’s meteoric rise through the judicial ranks less than a year after nominating his former legal counsel to a seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals. Brownback selected Stegall for the Kansas Supreme Court over fellow appeals court Judge Karen Arnold-Burger of Overland Park and District Judge Merlin Wheeler.
That's right. Someone with exactly one year on the bench has made a meteoric rise to the top of the legal profession in Kansas, and of course we know there have to be some fine credentials behind it.
In 2010, Stegall helped win the release of American missionaries detained in Haiti following an earthquake when they tried transporting children thought to be orphaned to the Dominican Republic for care.
Ok, so fought to free some missionaries..
When he was nominated to the appeals court last year, Stegall came under criticism for a 2005 editorial he wrote urging “forcible resistance” to save the life of Terri Schiavo.
Ooh.. yeah.. violent Resistance to keep Terri Schiavo vegetative.. hmmm.
He also said in that online chat that he worked as general counsel for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative think tank founded and partly funded by billionaires David and Charles Koch.
Oh well, that explains it.
Sometimes it is good to have the right kind of connections.
Paul Davis, Democratic candidate shared his thoughts:
Kansas Supreme Court, here we go!
Update I had originally noted this as Koch Employee. Please note, I'd stand by that assessment, as if you are General Counsel for AfP in KANSAS, home of Koch Industry, you are basically reporting up the ladder directly.. there isn't a lot of tape in between. That said, I find it fair to say that he was Americans for Prosperity General Counsel, and pretty much everyone can just realize that it means the same thing.
But, for clarity sake and so it isn't a straightforward jab, I've elected to change.