Why some lawmakers want to rethink Oklahoma’s judicial districts (Capitol Updates)

Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.

Rep. Chris Kannady (R-OKC) has requested an interim study on District Attorney District and Judicial District consolidation. Many of the district attorney districts and judicial districts in the state are composed of the same counties, but not all. For example, both DA District 23 and Judicial District 23 are composed of Pottawatomie and Lincoln Counties. However, DA District 10 is composed of Osage and Pawnee Counties, but Pawnee County is in Judicial District 14 with Tulsa County.

The interim study is likely an outgrowth of the effort last session by District 10 DA Rex Duncan to get the legislature to remove Pawnee County from Judicial District 14 and add it to Judicial District 10. That way both counties in his DA district would have been in the same judicial district, which might make life a little easier for him.

Duncan, a former State Representative, still had contacts with current legislators, some of whom served with him, and he understands the legislative process. So, during the final weeks of the session, Duncan located a House bill relating to a different topic (court reporters) and asked the Senate to “shuck” the language in the bill and replace it with language removing Pawnee County from Judicial District 14 and adding it to Judicial District 10. Before anyone realized what was going on the changed bill had passed the Senate.

By the time the bill went back to the House for approval of the Senate amendments, others affected by the change, namely the judges in Judicial District 14 and Judicial District 10 learned about it and, to the credit of legislators, found a way to be heard. The Senate amendments were rejected in the House, and when the bill came out of conference committee it never received a hearing on the House floor.

It’s likely no one around today can remember, if they ever knew, why Pawnee County is in a Judicial District with Tulsa County but in a DA district with Osage County. The Legislature replaced county attorneys with district attorneys in 1965 and set up the districts. No doubt there were local and legislative personalities involved in the decisions just like there always are when boundary lines get drawn. It’s not unreasonable for the legislature to look at the boundaries that have been there for over half a century and see if they still work. But after all that time there’s both history and logic to account for, and you can add to that the interests of those affected by a change. If the boundaries change it will come from a mix of logic, personalities and balancing the interests of those affected, including the citizens of each county.