The Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld today a circuit-court judge’s ruling that Gov. Ernie Fletcher has the right to reject nominees from the state’s Postsecondary Education Nominating Committee when he decides on his choices for public colleges’ boards of regents. The appeals court ruled, two to one, for the governor.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed last year by three nominees who were removed from an original list of regents proposed for Murray State University’s board by the nominating committee. Governor Fletcher, a Republican, went through two lists of nominees before he settled on an appeals-court judge, Jeff S. Taylor, a move that drew questions as to its legality.

Judge Thomas B. Wine dissented from today’s ruling. “Nothing in the record below suggests that any of the nominees were unqualified or that the governor was attempting to strike a gender balance,” he wrote. The lawyer for the three rejected nominees told the Associated Press that he would appeal the ruling to the Kentucky Supreme Court, should his clients wish to do so. —JJ Hermes