TOPEKA, Kan. - A former judge was sworn in Thursday as Kansas's third attorney general in just over a year.

Stephen Six succeeds Paul Morrison, The Kansas City Star reported. Morrison, who was elected to the position in November 2006, resigned after admitting that he had had an affair with a former staffer.

Six, the son of former Kansas City Supreme Court Justice Fred Six, was in private practice with a Kansas City law firm before becoming a judge.

A number of important cases involving Kansas are pending in the courts, with a decision in one expected Friday. In that case, the attorney general's office asked the court to determine whether a law authorizing state-owned casinos is constitutional.

Other pending cases include a challenge to the state law banning protests at funerals. The law is aimed at the Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka congregation that pickets military funerals with anti-homosexual signs.

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