The U.S. Senate on Wednesday evening unanimously voted to confirm KU School of Law professor Stephen McAllister as the top federal prosecutor in Kansas.
McAllister was nominated in September by President Donald Trump and succeeds Tom Beall, a career prosecutor who served as interim U.S. Attorney.
McAllister, 55, teaches at KU Law and was its dean from 2000 to 2005.
He has also served as solicitor general of Kansas, defending the state in key cases such as Gannon, the school financing case, death penalty cases, and cases challenging Kansas’ abortion laws.
McAllister, who grew up in the tiny north-central town of Lucas, Kansas, graduated at the top of his KU law school class in 1988. He clerked for Richard Posner, one of the most highly regarded federal appeals court judges in the country, before going on to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Clarence Thomas.
As the top federal prosecutor in the state, McAllister will oversee 50 assistant U.S. attorneys and 50 support staff based in offices in Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City, Kansas.
Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor for KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.
