Former Kansas Attorney General and current Liberty University law professor Phill Kline is now indefinitely suspended from the practice of law due to his investigation of abortion clinics run by the late George Tiller and by Planned Parenthood. Tiller was murdered in 2009 while attending church in Wichita with his wife. While opting not to disbar Kline, the Kansas Supreme Court found “clear and convincing evidence” of professional misconduct (including the violation of 11 rules) to warrant indefinite suspension.
Kline must wait three years to re-apply for the right to practice.
The court cited three aggravating factors to support the indefinite suspension: selfish motive, a pattern of misconduct and a refusal to acknowledge the wrongful nature of any misconduct. However, the court also found mitigating factors like cooperation with the proceedings and a lack of prior discipline.
Kline quickly became a polarizing figures in Kansas in his pursuit of abortion providers and other priorities viewed as highly ideological. He accused Planned Parenthood and Tiller of violating state abortion law and covering for pedophiles by not reporting pregnancies of underage girls. He was accused not only by Tiller of abuse but by the forewoman of the grand jury. The complaint included allegations of misleading judges and mishandling evidence detailed in a 154-page report.
Kline’s policy with regard to any girls under 16 seeking an abortion was quite extreme — assuming all were injured victims requiring reporting and investigation. His successor narrowed that policy. He was also accused of failing to properly advise a grand jury about applicable law, giving false and misleading information to judges about the handling of patient medical records from abortion clinics and instructing his staff to attach sealed documents to a public filing in violation of a court order.
Kline was viewed as the hammer of the religious right in the state. This was evident in his defense of Kansas law which provided substantially higher punishments for homosexual statutory rape compared to heterosexual rapes. Amazingly, however, Kansas trial court upheld the law as did the Kansas Court of Appeals. The Kansas Supreme Court then declined to hear the case in a complete failure of the state court system in the case of Matthew Limon, a mentally ill man convicted under the law. The case was then remanded in light of the in Lawrence v. Texas, which held that a similar Texas law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Nevertheless, Kline’s office continued to fight for the law and again the court of appeals upheld the conviction. That is truly unbelievable. Finally, however, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2005. Notably, such actions cannot be viewed as a disciplinary matter when so many judges signed off on upholding the law despite its clearly discriminatory impact on gays and lesbians. It is an indictment of the judicial branch of that state, particularly the opinion following the remand after Lawrence.
Liberty University is a Christian institution that teaches law from a religious perspective. His bio at the law school appears to both lament and celebrate his polarizing work on abortion. It notably does not mention the bar proceedings against him and has not been updated to note that, among his notable accomplishments, is the rare decision to indefinitely suspend him from the practice of law. The bio includes the following statement:
Aside from these accomplishments, almost all media attention regarding Kline has focused on abortion. His efforts have led the national abortion industry to pour millions of dollars into Kansas to attack and vilify him. Through it all, he continued to fight to enforce Kansas law and hold all accountable under the law. His leadership, as written by columnist Bob Novak, opened a new front on the abortion wars and placed Kansas in the epicenter of the current battle over the sanctity of human life.
His subjects include “Lawyering skills” which would seem a bit awkward given the report below.
The Liberty University shtick should have been clue enough, but you could throw in the Kansas AG job too, and that would be enough to convince 6 year old that this Klown was a QUACK !!
another sleepless pain filled night and i try to sit up and read this article and all i can do is shake my head… the elites will never give up their divisive and distractive tactics. they could care less whether a woman has a child or not. at least right now as their are so many children in the system for them to choose from.
they yell and scream out one side of their mouths at the world about abortion rights and wrongs and out the side they are colluding with the pharma industry to depopulate the earth of 5-6 million people. hence them coming up with a new pandemic every 5+ years or so. only when the people wake up and realize this. will the fall of the elites truly begin. and maybe wake up is the wrong choice of words.. what i should say is once the PEOPLE decide to ACCEPT the truth. only then will the fall of the elites begin.
This Kline idiot is obviously high up on the totem pole of the masons as he has been allowed to get away with outrageous behavior that would get anyone else not only disbarred but put in prison for many years.. and yet all he got was indefinite suspension and according to Otteray Scribe that really doesnt mean a damn thing as he can re apply in 3 years meanwhile he is able to teach law….
accreditation means the school is owned and operated by the elites and will only teach what they want you to teach and nothing more any school who is not accreditated is a school that opted to TEACH THE TRUTH. and not the revisionist history the slave masters want taught….the accreditated schools get all the money and of course the jobs while they vilify those who are determined to stand on their own with the ability to teach their students the truth of history , careers, and especially the R’s
Or is that “den”?
My mind was trying to place Liberty University and then someone commented above that it is the Jerry Fallwell place– a din of iniquity.
Thanks guys.
Mike A.,
If the Kansas Bar asks me, they keep Mr. Kline on the sidelines forever. He doesn’t deserve to be practicing law or teaching law. I guess Liberty is not to concerned about the ethics of its faculty.
Kraaken:
When an attorney is suspended with leave to reapply after a specified time period, that does not mean that the term of the suspension is that specified time period. In other words, the right to reapply is not a right to readmission. The suspension is for an indefinite period because there is no guarantee when, if ever, Mr. Kline will be readmitted to practice law in Kansas.
Has anybody checked if he’s in ALEC and the so-called Tea Party? He sounds like a perfect fit…….
Krakken:
Having dealt with licensing boards as well as parole boards for years, I am somewhat familiar with how they work. The eligibility to reapply date is much like the RED* for an inmate. Eligibility does not mean automatic acquiescence on the part of the board. Kline may have a long wait.
* RED = Release Eligibility Date; i.e. the earliest date an inmate can appear before the parole board.
OS: “Kline makes a good case for retroactive birth control.”
Made MY day!
One thing I don’t understand, though JT said in the article: ” now indefinitely suspended from the practice of law” and a paragraph or so later says “Kline must wait three years to re-apply for the right to practice.” Seems to me that three years is not an indefinite term.
Unfortunately, I fear Gene and Mike are right.
A guess that (unfortunately) I have to agree with, Mike A.
My guess is that Mr. Kline will retain his position at Liberty University and will be regarded as a legal martyr in the crusade against abortion rights.
On the topic proper though, I’m thoroughly familiar with Mr. Kline and from early on his career. Although I’m of mixed feelings about the suggestion to disbar, this suspension is both well merited and long overdue. His actions both as Johnson County DA and as State AG illustrate that he is a man who shouldn’t be in any position of authority let alone have any kind of prosecutorial powers.
“I had never heard of Ugg boots until I deleted their spam.”
Same here, Nal. Apparently spamming is their prime marketing strategy.
It also takes time to scroll through the, sometimes, hundreds of spam comments to find the one that isn’t spam. Most spam comments are easy to spot, but some of the spammers are tricky. If I don’t recognize the name, I have to read the comment to determine if it’s on-topic. I had never heard of Ugg boots until I deleted their spam.
anonymously posted 1, October 21, 2013 at 10:11 am
…
During a GOP rally Sunday night in Topeka, Kline provoked laughter from thousands of Republicans when he said, “You know, it’s great to see all of you in such good health, but, of course, I already knew that. I’ve seen all of your medical records.” ” (February 11, 2009)
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There may be an opening at the military NSA for him.
They seem to want to tarnish our nation’s reputation around the world.
He could help.
Despite the Freedom of Religion Clauses, it goes to show you just how so many still wish to inflict their moral code on society. We have some severe socio-economic problems, but abortion is not really one of them. In fact it may help right now with our current financial situation by not bringing more unwanted children into the world. A friend of mine and I were just discussing abortion the other day. His suggestion was, If a fetus can survive outside the womb with normal care it should not be terminated. If it cannot, it’s going to die. If women are going to make the decision, they need to make it quickly. Sounds like a pretty decent compromise on this controversial issue. As far as homosexual rights and heterosexual/marriage privileges, the courts have long shown us their fear of the religious right and their constitutional incompetence.
One of the great stories on religious freedom and persecution, is the Martyrs at Boston Common. Google it it’s on the web. Many do not know but our Declaration of independence and Constitution played an extremely large role in Religious freedom. Sadly we are not finished yet. My 7x great grandfather, held the Bennington, VT township land grants in the 1740’s and sold them off to people. He would segregate them into like minded religious groups to stifle conflict. Many called him a bigot for doing this but many call Captain Samuel Robinson, the father of Vermont. All six of his sons fought in the revolution and the Battle of Bennington was fought over the Continental Army/Green Mountain Boys armory, which just happened to be his and his son’s barn which was successfully defended. Vermont had declared independence about a year prior to the rest of the colonies which probably did not go over well in the eyes of the Brits. The British “Yorkers” tried to, by force, take the land grants and held my 6x grandfather, Silas a year in jail and Capt Samuel three (3) months necessitating Capt. Samuel to be elected by the township to go back to England where he successfully proved their ownership. He sadly died of Small Pox in England and never returns to the land he literally fought for. He gained access to the Land Grants by fighting in the French Indian Wars In Canada for Gov. Benning Wentworth, who the community named the City after. If anyone is a history buff on this time period, we have a missing link in the 1650s between Pilgrim Pastor John Robinson and William Robinson, my 9X grandfather, who reportedly owned the PUB across from Harvard University that many of the politicals, Including Jefferson, frequented.
Ross,
There are four words that trigger moderation (b*tch, a**hole, b*stard, and f*ck) and putting more than two links in a comment will as well. However, we have noticed as of late that the spam filter is acting up and has been flagging comments as spam that are not and occasionally just “eating” a comment outright. The Guest Bloggers try to keep on top of this (on an ad hoc basis) as much as possible by cleaning out the spam filter. Hopefully WP/Askimet are working to resolve this issue, but we apologize for any inconvenience in the meantime. One suggestion I can make is if you’ve put in a particularly long comment is to save it WordPad or some other text editor before posting just in case the filter decides to eat it.
Here is what Liberty University School of Law has to say about Kline:
(Liberty Univ.). Evidently he hasn’t informed Jerry Falwell about it.