The NO's - Following the Money: Kansas United for Impartial Courts Files $7.6 Million Report Opposing Election of Supreme Court Justices

On July 20, 2026, Kansas United for Impartial Courts (KUIC), based at PO Box 3021 in Lawrence, Kansas 66046, filed its Receipts and Expenditures Report with the Kansas Public Disclosure Commission for activity promoting or opposing a Kansas constitutional ballot question. The report covers calendar year 2026 activity and was received by the Commission on July 22, 2026. It was signed by Micah Kubic.

This is no small-dollar grassroots effort. The numbers are large, concentrated, and heavily tilted toward national progressive organizations, major trial-lawyer firms, and a handful of high-dollar individual and foundation donors. The group is the lead opposition force against the Kansas Elections for Supreme Court Justices Amendment that will appear on the August 4, 2026, primary ballot.

The Ballot Question and the Stakes

The amendment, placed on the ballot by the 2025 Legislature via SCR 1611, would change how Kansas selects its Supreme Court justices. Currently, Kansas uses a merit-selection system: a nominating commission screens candidates, the governor appoints from the list, and justices face retention elections. The proposed amendment would replace that with direct election of justices by the voters for six-year terms (staggered starting in 2028, 2030, and 2032), with vacancies filled by election. A “Yes” vote supports electing the justices; a “No” vote keeps the existing appointment/retention system.

KUIC is campaigning for “No.” Its report shows the financial muscle behind that effort.

The Headline Numbers

From the summary page:

• Total Contributions and Other Receipts (Schedule A): $7,635,371.03
• In-Kind Contributions (Schedule B): $260,515.92
• Total Expenditures and Other Disbursements (Schedule C): $6,600,675.29

Itemized contributions accounted for $7,615,288.96; unitemized contributions of $50 or less totaled $20,082.07. The group certified that, for the period beginning July 1, 2025, it had not knowingly accepted contributions or made expenditures from a foreign national, and that each named donor was not a foreign national and had not knowingly accepted more than $100,000 in the aggregate from foreign nationals in the prior four years.

The Big Money: Largest Contributions, Biggest First

When the contributions are ordered by size (aggregating multiple gifts from the same entity or closely related entities where the report shows repeated large transfers), a clear pattern emerges. National progressive organizations and a small number of wealthy donors and trial-lawyer firms dominate the top of the list. Here are the largest, ranked from biggest to smallest:

1. American Civil Liberties Union entities (national ACLU, ACLU of Kansas, and ACLU Foundation of Kansas) — approximately $2,100,000. Multiple large transfers appear, including $500,000, $250,000, and $100,000 gifts plus substantial in-kind support.
2. Planned Parenthood entities (Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes) — approximately $1,450,000. This includes repeated six-figure cash gifts ($400,000, $250,000, $200,000) plus in-kind contributions.
3. Lynn Schusterman (110 W 7th St Ste 2000, Tulsa, OK 74119) — $1,000,000.
4. Open Society Policy Center (400 W 59th St, New York, NY 10019) — $400,000.
5. National Education Association (1201 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20036) — $250,000.
6. Health Forward Foundation (2300 Main St #304, Kansas City, MO 64108) — $175,000.
7. Kansas Fair Court Fund (1031 Vermont St, Lawrence, KS 66044) — $115,921.36. 8–17. A cluster of $100,000 contributions from plaintiff/personal-injury oriented law firms and one individual:
   • DM Law Kansas City LLC (Kansas City, MO)
   • DeVaughn James LLC (Wichita)
   • Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman (Kansas City, MO)
   • Prochaska Law Firm LLC (Wichita)
   • Davis Bethune & Jones LLC (Kansas City, MO)
   • Langdon & Emison LLC (Lexington, MO)
   • Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP (Kansas City, MO)
   • Dickerson Oxton LLC (Kansas City, MO)
   • Nicholas Rowley (Decorah, IA)
   • Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP (Kansas City, MO)
8. Dollar, Burns, Becker & Hershewe, LC (and related entries) — approximately $90,000–$100,000 range across listed gifts.

19–22. Several $50,000 gifts from additional law firms:

• Slape and Howard (Wichita)
• Palmer Law Group LLC (Topeka)
• Patterson Legal Group LLC (Wichita)
• Bull Attorneys, PA (Wichita)
• Jonathan E. Baum Revocable Trust (Mission Hills)

23–33. A group of $25,000 contributions that includes:

• John Bird / Glassman Bird Law LLC (Hays)
• Ann Stegman Isenberg (Mission Hills)
• Mann & Wyatt LLC (Hutchinson)
• Schmitt Templin LLC (Kansas City, MO)
• Graybill & Hazelwood LLC (Wichita)
• Fred Spigarelli (Pittsburg)
• Simon Law Firm PC (St. Louis, MO)
• Hutton & Hutton Law Firm, LLC (Wichita)
• Kansas Bar Association (Topeka)
• Quinn Delaney (Oakland, CA)

Additional notable five-figure gifts include Gary Robb and Anita Robb (combined roughly $46,800 across entries), Kansas Women Attorneys for Freedom / Kansas Women Attorney’s Association (combined roughly $40,000+), Hite, Fanning & Honeyman LLP ($20,000), Martin Pringle Oliver Wallace & Bauer LLP ($20,000), Polsinelli ($20,000), Fowler Pickert Eisenmenger Norfleet LLC ($20,000), and the KTLA Consumer/Civil Justice PAC ($12,979.08). Rebein Brothers (Dodge City), Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLC, John Isenberg, Rachel Smith, Injury Law Associates LLC, and several other firms appear at the $10,000 level.

Below that threshold are hundreds of smaller contributions—many in the $25–$1,000 range—from individual Kansas lawyers, retired judges or court-related professionals, and private citizens across the state (Topeka, Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, Mission Hills, Emporia, Hutchinson, Dodge City, and elsewhere) plus a scattering of out-of-state individual donors. Interest deposits from Great American Bank in Lawrence also appear as minor receipts. The report’s unitemized total of just over $20,000 covers the smallest gifts of $50 or less.

In-Kind Support

Schedule B lists $260,515.92 in in-kind contributions. The largest single item is $148,825.31 from Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (Washington, DC). Other significant in-kind donors include Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes ($46,792.33), the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas ($45,922.03), the national ACLU ($8,168.59), KS Value Institute ($6,850), the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association ($2,963.84), and smaller amounts from Planned Parenthood Action Fund and the Sedgwick County Democratic Party.

What the Money Bought

The group spent roughly $6.6 million. The expenditure schedules (many pages of Schedule C) show heavy volume of credit-card processing fees (ActBlue, Stripe, Anedot), payroll and benefit services, software and digital tools (EveryAction, Zoom), office supplies, legal services (including Elias Law Group), compliance consulting, digital strategy, and—by far the largest category—advertising and campaign services. This is consistent with a high-intensity media and field campaign in the weeks leading up to the August 4 primary.

Observations

The donor list is not a broad cross-section of ordinary Kansas voters writing small checks. It is dominated by:

• National progressive advocacy organizations with strong interests in judicial selection and related social issues (ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Open Society Policy Center, NEA).
• A network of plaintiff-side personal-injury and consumer law firms, many of which have long preferred appointed rather than elected high courts.
• A small number of very large individual and foundation gifts, including the $1 million from Lynn Schusterman and the $400,000 from the Open Society Policy Center.

Local and regional law firms, the Kansas Bar Association, and Kansas-based progressive groups round out the upper tier. Hundreds of smaller individual donations exist, but they do not drive the totals.

This report provides a clear, publicly available snapshot of who is financing the campaign to keep the current merit-selection system for the Kansas Supreme Court. Voters can now weigh that information alongside the policy arguments as they decide how to vote on August 4. The full 54-page filing is a public record with the Kansas Public Disclosure Commission and the Secretary of State.