The state has paid the law firm of Gov. Laura Kelly’s appeals court nominee almost $1 million to defend limits on abortion approved by the Legislature.
The attorney general’s office reported paying $924,986 since 2011 to the Thompson Warner law firm for defending Kansas in three major abortion cases brought in state court and other related litigation.
Sarah Warner, a partner in the firm who has helped defend those abortion restrictions, has been nominated by the governor to a seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals. Her work at the firm includes representing governments facing state and federal constitutional challenges.
She was named president of the Kansas Bar Association at 38 and was elected to the Kansas Bar’s Board of Governors at 35. She became president of the Kansas Association of Defense Counsel at 36.
Warner was part of a team that defended the abortion limits enacted under former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback but opposed by Kelly as a state senator. Warner attended a law school founded by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, who is pro-life, and whose faculty included the late jurist Robert Bork.
As a supporter of abortion rights, Kelly had the backing of Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood last year when she ran for governor.
Most recently, Kelly vetoed a hotly debated bill requiring physicians to tell a woman that she can have a drug-induced abortion reversed.
“Gov. Kelly’s position and record on women’s access to reproductive healthcare is clear,” said Ashley All, the governor’s spokeswoman.
All said Warner exemplifies a legal system that depends on robust advocacy on both sides of the law.
“The governor looks for smart, dedicated, impartial, independent judges,” All said in an email. “Like all experienced litigators, Sarah Warner has represented many clients and litigated many issues in her career.
“The governor understands that the legal system depends on vigorous and capable advocacy, no matter who is involved or what issues are at stake.”
Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier, one of the leading supporters of abortion rights in the statehouse, expressed less concern about Warner’s defense work than about the nominee’s law school education.
Bollier said Warner was not a “slam dunk” at this point, wanting to know more about her studies at Ave Maria School of Law, a Catholic law school based in Naples, Fla., that was previously located in Ann Arbor, Mich. Warner graduated from Ave Maria Law School in 2006.
The school was founded in 1999 by former Domino’s Pizza magnate Monaghan, who is described on the law school’s website as having a “passion for pro-life causes.” The school is accredited, but in 2016 the American Bar Association found that the school was not in compliance with its admission standards. Last year, the school was found in compliance.
The Associated Press explained the origins of the school in this 1999 report that details how Monaghan spent $50 million to create a law school with a goal of mixing “legal advocacy and Catholic morality.”
The school’s original faculty included Bork, the onetime U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Commencement speakers included then-U.S. Sen. Brownback in 2003 and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 2004. Brownback and Thomas both received honorary degrees from the law school.
“I want to understand the influences of that. I need to talk to her about that,” Bollier said of Warner. “That’s significant.”
Asked about the legal work, Bollier said she understood there are always two sides in a legal case, and everyone requires a defense.
“I need to understand if that is her only side,” Bollier said. “It just has to be explored further. I don’t know the answer.”
All said the governor has not discussed with Warner her personal beliefs about abortion.
“But after thorough discussion regarding Sarah’s approach to the law and her view of the role of a Court of Appeals judge, the governor is confident that Sarah understands that role and will apply the law fairly and impartially,” All said.
The payments made to the law firm, which has undergone multiple name changes since 2011, include fees for all of the firm’s attorneys as well as all expenses, such as payment for expert witnesses, document transcription and travel. The attorney general’s office said no direct payments were made to Warner.
The fees cover three state trial court cases, related appellate cases and a federal case brought before the abortion litigation moved into state court.
Warner declined to comment for this story, deferring to the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office.
The attorney general’s office said the law firm currently known as Thompson Warner was selected because, at the time, that was the firm with which former state Solicitor General and now U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister was affiliated.
McAllister was once listed “of counsel” with the firm when it was known as Thompson, Ramsdell & Qualseth.
McAllister, a constitutional scholar and former University of Kansas Law School dean, worked on the state’s defense of the abortion statutes, too. He was appointed U.S. attorney by President Donald Trump in 2017.
Warner helped defend the state against a legal challenge that led to the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision finding a right to an abortion in the state constitution.
Warner’s other work on abortion cases included defending the state against a legal challenge to a law placing new safety regulations that critics said were designed to shut down abortion clinics. The 2011 lawsuit over the regulations is still pending.
She also helped defend the state against a lawsuit challenging a 2013 law that included provisions that redefined a medical emergency for women needing an immediate abortion.
It also would have prohibited tax breaks for abortion clinics and banned abortion providers from furnishing material about human sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases in public schools.
A state judge temporarily blocked part of the law relating to medical emergencies, but most of the 2013 case was put on hold until the state Supreme Court could decide the fate of a separate law banning dilation and evacuation abortions that critics call “dismemberment abortions.”
The high court ultimately found that abortion was protected in the state constitution.
Warner emerged as the nominee through the so-called merit selection process that Kelly set up to make her appointment.
Kelly could have made the appointment unilaterally, but she formed a committee of lawyers and nonlawyers to recommend three nominees she could choose from. She used that method in an effort to bring more transparency to the judicial selection process.
The state had used that process for years until 2013, when the Legislature eliminated the merit selection process for picking candidates to the Kansas Court of Appeals. Merit selection is still used for Kansas Supreme Court justices.
The governor now gets the appeals court appointment with confirmation by the state Senate. Kelly, however, used a nominating process to pick a candidate.
Kelly initially nominated Judge Jeffry Jack, who was ultimately rejected because of rants on Twitter against conservative politicians.
Warner, who was among the candidates recommended by the commission, was tapped for the positon after Jack’s nomination went down.
“Sarah Warner has received broad, diverse support from attorneys and judges across Kansas, regardless of political or partisan views,” All said.
“She is well-respected by her colleagues, which is why she was elected president of the Kansas Bar Association.”
