Court Cases

On October 30, 2025, the ACLU of Kansas and pro bono counsel Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of four Kansans over the unlimited, harsher punishment of poor defendants. The courts of Johnson County extend people's probation because they are unable to pay their restitution, even if they follow all other requirements. Kansas law allows judges to extend probation on the grounds of outstanding restitution alone even though the State and the courts know that they can collect restitution without extending probation. For years and even decades, people on probation in Kansas who have met all other requirements of their sentences have been unable to civically engage with their community simply because they couldn't afford to pay their restitution. While on probation, people are subject to invasive searches of their person and possessions without a warrant, are required to report on their movements in and out of the state, are not allowed to eat in or visit places that serve alcohol, and have their associations and habits surveilled. People on probation also cannot vote in Kansas until after they have been officially discharged. When probation is extended due to failure to pay, all of the terms of probation are extended—not just the outstanding amount of debt. Some of the clients in this case have had their probation extended for decades longer than the probationary period originally prescribed by the legislature in the criminal statute. In 2022, 12% of the Kansans lived below the poverty line. Amongst Black and Latino Kansans, 20.7% and 20.6 % respectively lived below the poverty line. For Native American Kansans that number was 17.6%. These are the individuals most in need of a government that works for them. However, due to the laws like the Kansas probation extension statute, they are most likely to remain on de facto permanent probation. For more information on this case, view the documents below. Updates will be added periodically.

On September 21, 2023, the ACLU of Kansas filed an amicus brief in League of Women Voters of Kansas, Loud Light, Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Topeka Independent Living Resource Center, Charley Crabtree, Faye Huelsmann, and Patricia Lewter v. Scott Schwab and Kris Kobach before the Kansas Court of Appeals.

On September 15, 2023, the ACLU of Kansas, ACLU, ACLU of Colorado, ACLU of New Mexico, ACLU of Oklahoma, ACLU of Utah, and ACLU of Wyoming filed an amicus brief in Vote America and Voter Participation Center v. Schwab, Kobach, Howe before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

On December 15, 2022, the ACLU of Kansas, UCLA Voting Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union, and pro bono partner Cleary Gottlieb LLP filed a federal challenge to the at-large method of elections in Dodge City, Kansas, charging it unlawfully dilutes the voting power of Latine* residents.

On February 14, 2021, the ACLU of Kansas and partners filed suit in Wyandotte County District Court Monday, seeking to block the recently enacted congressional redistricting map. On May 18, 2022, the Supreme Court of Kansas ruled against the Plaintiffs, allowing the Ad Astra 2 map to take effect.

In December 2020, the ACLU of Kansas brought a suit on behalf of nonprofit Loud Light and its founder and Executive Director Davis Hammett against Secretary of Scott Schwab for violating his office's obligation to follow the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA).