4p.m. Tuesday  AP) — A Kansas Senate committee has approved Gov. Sam Brownback’s nomination of his chief counsel for an open seat on the state Court of Appeals.

The Judiciary Committee’s voice vote sends the nomination of Caleb Stegall to the full Senate. The chamber is expected to debate and vote on the appointment Wednesday.

Republicans dominate the committee and the full Senate, so the GOP governor’s nomination of Stegall wasn’t likely to meet much opposition.

But he faced questions about comments in 2005 in an online magazine he edited that encouraged “forcible resistance” to court orders in order to save the life of a brain-damaged Florida woman.

Stegall said during a Judiciary Committee hearing that the comments in The New Pantagruel about the Terri Schiavo case were an endorsement of civil disobedience.

 

(AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback’s chief counsel faces questions from state senators ahead of a committee vote on his nomination to the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing on Caleb Stegall’s appointment to the state’s second highest court was the Senate’s main business on the opening day of a special legislative session.

The committee planned to vote Tuesday evening.

Lawmakers are convening to rewrite a law allowing murderers to be sentenced to at least 50 years in prison. But the Senate is legally obligated to consider pending appointments.

The 41-year-old Stegall was an attorney in private practice and Jefferson County’s elected prosecutor before joining Brownback’s staff in 2011. He’s submitted more than 300 pages of documents to the committee.

The full Senate hopes to vote on his appointment Wednesday.