The vendetta mounted by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’s judicial appointees against Phill Kline, the pro-life Kansas ex-prosecutor — and a Sebelius nemesis — was dealt yet another setback today when a judicial-conduct panel dropped charges against Eric Rucker. Rucker is a decent and hardworking prosecutor whose “crime” had been to work with Kline to try to enforce state laws on abortion. Planned Parenthood and the state’s judiciary stonewalled those investigations. The panel’s decision and a statement from Caleb Stegall, Rucker’s attorney, are here.
There’s still more trouble ahead for Rucker and Kline, of course. Next: a discrimination suit filed by one of Kline’s many Kansas enemies. When they bring chair-lifts to Kansas ski slopes, this obsessive campaign will finally end.
A state supreme court justice named Carol Beier — a Sebelius appointee who faces a retention election in November (and who, because voters ignore this stuff, will probably win) — appears to be the string-puller here, as politically inspired “cases” against Kline and his deputies pop up like red wheat. Beier is one very, very angry woman. I detailed her role in this shameful melodrama for NRO here. A longer take on the state judiciary’s persecution of Kline is here.