REPUBLICANS CHALLENGE MORRIS' VERSION
OF CONVERSATION WITH NUSS
JOHN HANNA
Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. - Questions about Supreme Court Justice Lawton Nuss' conversation with Senate President Steve Morris on school finance shifted Thursday to whether Morris was given assurances that someone could persuade the court to accept an education plan.
Three fellow Republicans said Morris told them a court employee had told him the employee could influence the court, if a plan approved by legislators had bipartisan support and was large enough.

Morris, from Hugoton, said he didn't make such a statement, and three other senators said that during their conversations with the Senate president, he didn't mention that someone suggested influencing the court was possible.

Morris and Nuss had their conversation March 1, during a lunch arranged by Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, a longtime friend of the justice. Morris discussed that conversation with other senators on March 31 during a series of meetings in his office.

The conversation angered some legislators, particularly conservative Republicans who call it an ethical lapse by Nuss and an attempt to negotiate a plan. Morris, Brungardt and Nuss, speaking through the court's spokesman, have said there was no intent to negotiate.

A lawsuit against the state over education funding remains before the court, and legislators face a mandate to increase aid to public schools. Court spokesman Ron Keefover said Nuss' conversation is the only time someone with the court has discussed the lawsuit with legislators.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Kay McFarland asked the state Commission on Judicial Qualifications to review the incident. Also, the attorney general's office has launched an inquiry.

In addition, House Speaker Doug Mays was considering appointing a special committee to investigate.

Meanwhile, a Topeka resident, Jack Woelfel, filed a complaint against McFarland with the Commission on Judicial Qualifications. It involves a lunch she had last week with Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer, who has said they discussed budget matters briefly, but not school finance.

"I'm not questioning or accusing the justice of doing anything wrong. I just want to make sure what the justice is doing is proper," said Woelfel, a retired computer technician who described himself as a citizen interested in public affairs. "If there's people who will look at this, let's give her a clean bill of health."

The state's Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits justices from discussing pending cases outside the court. After acknowledging his conversation with Morris and Brungardt, Nuss removed himself from the school finance case last week.

The dispute over what Morris said about the conversation with Nuss began Wednesday, when he distributed a memo to GOP colleagues.

The memo said Nuss sought to understand numbers associated with various alternatives, at one point producing a spreadsheet. Also, the memo said, Nuss said he had read reports that a bipartisan school finance plan was in the works and it "sounded good."

But Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, one of the senators questioned, immediately challenged Morris' version.

On March 31, Morris first told Sen. Jim Barnett of Emporia, a GOP candidate for governor, about the conversation with Nuss. Barnett then pulled Wagle, his running mate, and other senators into Morris' office to hear the story.

Barnett then contacted the attorney general's office. He also sent a letter to the U.S. attorney's office, spokesman Jim Cross said, though he wouldn't say how it responded to that letter.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported Thursday that Barnett told the attorney general Morris had claimed to b e in contact with an employee of a Supreme Court justice who guaranteed "he or she could sway the remainder of the court to accept" a school finance bill that would end the lawsuit.

Morris said Barnett's statement was not true but would not comment further.

Brungardt - who says he was not interviewed by the attorney general's office - said the lunch conversation was "nothing remotely reminiscent of what was in the paper."

He said the controversy "is essential for conservatives to have something to talk about other than school finance."

Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, also interviewed by the attorney general's office, recalled the conversation with Morris as brief, with no mention of other justices being swayed.

"Sen. Barnett asked Steve to talk about his contact with the court, and the president's response was that he had had communication with a court employee, and he didn't go beyond that," said Schmidt, R-Independence.

Sens. Pat Apple, R-Louisburg, and Roger Pine, R-Lawrence, recalled their conversations with Morris were similar.

But another, Sen. Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, said he had several, more detailed conversations with Morris.

Summarizing what Morris said about his source at the court, Bruce said: "It was this individual's belief that there was a justice who could persuade a majority of the court to go along with it."
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Associated Press Writer Carl Manning in Topeka contributed to this report.
The school finance case is Montoy et al. v. State of Kansas, et al., No. 92,032.
On the Net:
Kansas Supreme Court: http://www.kscourts.org
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