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Topeka — Phill Kline says that one of the biggest issues he has faced since taking office is what he considers to be an encroachment by Kansas' courts into political territory best left to legislators.

The issue, he says, is not likely to disappear. The state faces a district court judge's July 1 deadline to fix its system for financing public schools, and a Kansas Court of Appeals decision looms in a case that involves disparate prison sentences for illegal gay and heterosexual sex.

"There's a developing issue regarding our form of government, and that is who should be making these fundamental decisions, legislatures or courts," Kline said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "Increasingly, we're seeing judges think that they can do it best."

He added: "We're getting courts that are forwarding their policy decisions, rather than taking a look at the constitution. It provides for what is in political science terms an oligarchy, what I call a monarchy by committee."

Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock ruled this month that Kansas' school finance system is constitutionally flawed. Bullock concluded the state neither spends enough money nor distributes it fairly to schools.

Also this month, the Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case of Matthew R. Limon, sentenced to 17 years and two months in prison for having sex with an underage boy in 2000. Had either party been female, the sentence could have been as little as a year and three months.

Kline has argued that Bullock overstepped his authority. He also has said the courts shouldn't dictate a change in Kansas sentencing laws because of Limon's case. In both, he said the issues should be left to the Legislature.

He had a similar take on a November decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which said that state's constitution gave gay couples the right to marry. Kline also joined other attorneys general in protesting a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that it was unconstitutional to have school children recite the Pledge of Allegiance with a reference to God.

"When you look at the development over time of our courts and judges making decisions, what you see is that every social, political, philosophical and cultural issue is colliding in the courtroom somewhere," Kline said. "But I think courts are losing their understanding of their limitations as well, and that's concerning."

The attorney general also fought the American Civil Liberties Union in the Limon case. He argued that the ACLU's efforts to win Limon's release, if successful, would overturn the state's legal definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.

As a Kansas House member in 1996, Kline voted for a law that reiterated the state's longstanding policy against same-sex marriage.

"But in the courtroom, it's not about whether you're for or against gay marriage," Kline said. "It's about whether what you believe about it will have any say in the legislative arena."

He also said: "You know, you might not agree with what the Legislature does, but then you fire them in the next election cycle. That doesn't happen with a judge."

Kline himself has been criticized for overstepping the bounds of his office.

He found himself in federal court this year after a group of clinics and health care providers sued him over a requirement that they report any suspected incident of someone under 16 having sex, which is illegal in Kansas.