Seven candidates have applied to replace Martha Luckert on the Kansas Supreme Court in what might be the last time that the Supreme Court Nominating Commission gets to recommend potential nominees to the governor.
In what is the smallest field in years, most of the candidates who have applied are familiar names in the Kansas legal world and have sought a seat on the court before.
Two of the candidates were finalists when the commission recommended three applicants to replace the late Evelyn Wilson last year. And four others applied for a seat on the court last year.
The commission will meet April 21 to finalize the date to interview applicants and other procedural matters.
In August, voters will decided whether they want to elect justices to the Kansas Supreme instead of using a nine-member panel to screen candidates and recommend three to the governor, who chooses one to appoint.
If voters move to electing justices, the candidate chosen for the job could be faced with running to keep their seat on the court.
The governor appoints four members of the committee and five are elected by lawyers.
Last year, 15 candidates applied for a seat on the court last year to replace Wilson.
In 2020, there were 11 candidates who sought to fill a seat on the Kansas Supreme Court that came open with the retirement of Justice Carol Beier.
In 2019, there were 17 applicants for the seat that came open with the retirement of Lee Johnson.
Here’s in-depth look at who applied Friday:
Meryl Carver-Allmond, Lawrence
Experience: raining director for the Kansas Board of Indigents’ Defense Services. Also worked as Kansas capital appellate defender, who handled direct appeals of death penalty cases in the Kansas appellate courts. She was the Kansas capital appellate defender from 2012 to 2021. She researched and co-authored briefs in six death penalty cases and filed petitions for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in four of those cases. Carver-Allmond worked as the assistant Kansas appellate public defender from 2008 to July 2012. She researched and wrote almost 150 briefs in felony cases before the Kansas appellate courts.
Education: Bachelor’s in justice studies/political science from Pittsburg State in 2003. She earned a law degree from the University of Kansas Law School in 2005.
Carl Folsom III, Lawrence
Experience: Was appointed district judge in Douglas County in 2022. He currently presides over cases involving general civil litigation, domestic and limited actions. Before joining the bench, Folsom served as a trial attorney with the Office of the Federal Public Defender. Folsom initially joined the Federal Public Defender system in 2012, first working as a research and writing specialist and then as an assistant federal public defender for the Northern and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma. Early in his career, Folsom was a partner in the Lawrence law firm Bell Folsom. He started his legal career with the Kansas Appellate Defender Office. Gov. Laura Kelly twice nominated Folsom to the Kansas Court of Appeals, but he was rejected by the Senate even though he had support from conservative Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall as well as former Kansas U.S. Attorney Stephen R. McAllister and former Senate Vice President Jeff King. Folsom is now presiding over the legal challenge to a law that eliminated the state’s three-day grace period. He’s also hearing the lawsuit challenging the state law banning surgery and use of puberty blockers for treating transgender Kansans. He applied for a seat on the Supreme Court last year and made it through two out of five rounds of voting.
Education: Law degree from the University of Kansas and a bachelor’s from KU.
Amy Hanley, Lawrence
Experience: Has been a district judge in Douglas County since 2016. Previously served as the program director and instructor at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. She also served on the board of trustees for that group, which provides trial advocacy training to attorneys. She also worked as an assistant attorney general and criminal prosecution section lead for about seven years with the attorney general’s office. She also worked as the first assistant Saline County attorney for almost seven years. And she served as a special assistant U.S. attorney. She also was cofounder and vice chair for the National District Attorney Association Women Prosecutors Section. She applied for a seat on the Supreme Court last year and was one of three finalists recommended to the governor, who chose Leawood attorney Larkin Walsh for the job.
Education: Earned law degree from Drake University and undergraduate degree from Kansas State University.
Christopher Jayaram, Lenexa
Experience: Gov. Laura Kelly named Jayaram as a district judge in Johnson County in 2021. Jayaram – a 1997 graduate of the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon – had been an attorney at Horn Aylward & Bandy in Kansas City, Missouri. He specialized in business and commercial litigation, health care law, product liability litigation and trucking litigation. A 1993 graduate of the University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, Jayaram worked for the Environmental Protection Agency out of school and later as a law clerk in the trial division of the Oregon Department of Justice. He later worked for the Portland law firm of Smith, Freed, Heald & Chock before moving to Kansas City. He has presided over the legal challenge to state abortion restrictions. He applied for a seat on the Supreme Court last year. He was one of three candidates recommended to the governor, who chose Leawood attorney Larkin Walsh.
Education: Bachelor’s in environmental science from the University of Kansas and a law degree from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in Portland.
Molly McMurray Gordon, Wichita
Experience: Federal prosecutor in Wichita, handles an array of cases including child exploitation. She also served as assistant general counsel at Wichita State University. She also was an attorney at the law firm of Depew Gillen Rathbun & McInteer. She also was a law clerk for federal judge Eric Melgren, who recently took senior status.
Education: She earned her law degree from Washburn University in 2007 and a bachelor’s from the University of Kansas in 2004.
Kristen Wheeler, Wichita
Experience: Now chair of the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals. She’s been in that position since 2021. She previously worked as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten. She has worked with the Robinson Law Firm in Wichita, focusing on business advising and litigation, real estate advising and litigation, small-business representation, intellectual property protection, consumer protection, foreclosure defense, contracts, and environmental law. She also was of counsel to Morris, Laing, Evans, Brock & Kennedy. Wheeler has sought seats on the Kansas Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court. She came up just a couple votes short of making the list of three candidates recommended to the governor to fill Lawton Nuss’ seat on the Supreme Court several years ago. She applied for a seat on the court last year and made it through three out of five rounds of voting before falling out of competition.
Education: Bachelor’s from the University of Kansas in biodiversity, ecology and evolutionary biology; law degree from Washburn University.
Robert James Wonnell, Olathe
Experience: A district judge in Johnson County since 2015. He was appointed to the bench in 2015 by former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. He was an attorney in private practice from 2001 to 2015 at the firm McAnany, Van Cleave and Phillips in Kansas City, Kansas. He applied for a seat on the Supreme Court last year and made it to a fifth round tie-breaker before falling out of contention. Had he won the tie breaker, he would have been recommended to the governor.
Education: He graduated with a bachelor’s in 1998 from Phillips University, a private university in Oklahoma. He earned his law degree from the University of Kansas.
