Career
He has served as the District attorney for Jefferson County, Kansas and Chief Counsel to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback before being appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals. On August 29, 2014, Stegall was appointed by Kansas Governor Sam Brownback to the Kansas Supreme Court, replacing Nancy Moritz, who was appointed by President Barack Obama to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Born in Topeka, Stegall is a lifelong resident of Douglas and Jefferson Counties in northeast Kansas.
At the time of his appointment by Brownback, the Kansas Democratic Party issued a release criticizing Brownback for the appointment.
He represented the State of Kansas in litigation with environmentalists over the permitting of coal-fired power plants. Stegall represented eight American missionaries detained in Haiti following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
In 2007 he was the lead counsel in the Kansas Supreme Court trial of former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline. In 2008, Stegall represented a group of residents opposed public financing of casino operations in Kansas City, Kansas.
In 2008 he represented a church that challenged local regulations on the church"s operations as a homeless shelter.
In 2009 he represented a teacher who claimed he had not been rehired because of his conservative political beliefs. As district attorney, he filed charges in 2009 against a county commissioner charged with theft by deception. and in 2010 was involved with a federal and state investigation of a distributor of "ethnobotanicals" who was accused of selling a synthetic cannabis. He has worked as a counsel for Americans for Prosperity.
On January 12, 2009, Stegall began his first term as Jefferson County District Attorney.
He has been characterized by the popular and politically left publication Firedoglake as a "rising political star" of the right, has been suggested as a possible candidate for United States. Senate, and has been described as representing a new path for the Grand Old Party in the post-Bush years.
