gain information in abortion investigations and that he had no duty to promptly notify a trial judge that he had provided flawed information. On October 13, 2011, the Kansas Board of Discipline of Attorneys recommended that Kline's law license be indefinitely suspended, citing a pattern of repeatedly misleading statements, "dishonest and selfish motives", and a failure to "take any responsibility for his misconduct." Kline disputed the Board's findings as politically motivated. The recommendation to suspend his license went to the state's Supreme Court, where Kline's demands resulted in the unusual recusal of five Justices and a substitute appeals court judge from the case. The court indefinitely suspended Kline's law license on October 18, 2013. The costs to the taxpayers of defending his license came to nearly $600,000. The United States Supreme Court – the only level of federal court which could overrule the state supreme court decision – announced on April 28, 2014, that it was declining to hear Kline's request to review the suspension of his Kansas license to practice law. However, Kline continued to pursue the matter as a federal case, in federal District court, where he lost in 2016. He then appealed that decision to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver — losing again, July 3, 2017, by the decision of a three-judge panel who refused to allow the case to be reopened in federal court. References External links |- |- 1959 births Living people Politicians from Kansas City, Kansas Kansas lawyers Republican Party members of the Kansas House of Representatives University of Central Missouri alumni University of Kansas alumni Kansas Attorneys General District attorneys in Kansas American talk radio hosts American members of the Church of the Nazarene Legal ethics Virginia Republicans People from Shawnee, Kansas Conservatism in the United States 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American politicians