How the Kansas Supreme Court Works—and Why It Matters

What does the Kansas Supreme Court actually do—and why does it matter?   This presentation explains the court’s role within our system of checks and balances, the principles that guide judicial decision-making, and the importance of impartial, independent courts for all Kansans.

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Judge Standridge was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2020 after nearly 13 years on the Court of Appeals.  She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas and her law degree,
cum laude, from the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the UMKC Law Review and received the Clerk Boardman Callaghan Award for Exemplary Third-Year Student.  After law school, Standridge served as chambers counsel for U.S. District Judge Elmo Hunter, U.S. District Court of Western Missouri, and later as an associate at Shook,
Hardy & Bacon.  Before her Court of Appeals appointment, she was chambers counsel for U.S. District Magistrate Judge David Waxse, U.S. District Court of Kansas.  Standridge is the Supreme Court liaison to the Board of Law Examiners, Admissions Review Committee, National Center for State Courts’ family plans and programs, Kansas Children’s Cabinet, Permanent Families Account Advisory Committee, and the Task Force on Permanency Planning.

Judge Karen Arnold-Burger is a 1981 graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law. She was appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals in 2011. She served as Chief Judge from 2017 – 2025. She has presented programs throughout her career to judges, lawyers and community groups around the state and the country on a wide range of topics. Of late she has devoted her writing and speaking to explicit and implicit bias in our legal system, bail reform, the Kansas court system and Kansas history. She currently serves as Chair of Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area Board of Trustees. She is actively involved volunteering with groups that are working to preserve the history of the Quindaro area of Kansas City, Kansas and she will talk your ear off about it if you give her half a chance!