On July 11, 2023, the ACLU of Kansas, the ACLU, and Stinson LLP filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit between Attorney General Kris Kobach and the Kansas Department of Revenue, on behalf of five transgender Kansans who would be irreparably harmed by an unconstitutional effort by Kobach to ban and reverse changes to the gender markers on their driver’s licenses.
Citing a new law passed by the Kansas state legislature over a veto by Governor Laura Kelly attempting to limit the rights of transgender people, Attorney General Kobach filed a lawsuit, Kansas v. Harper, in state court on July 7 against the government agency that issues driver’s licenses, asking the court to prohibit transgender people from changing their gender markers on their driver’s licenses. Judge Teresa Watson granted a temporary restraining order within days of the the initial filing, before KDOR could respond, and the order blocked the Kelly administration from allowing gender marker changes while the case went forward.
The Kansas Constitution guarantees Kansans who are transgender the same rights as Kansans who are not transgender. Those rights include those guaranteed by Section 1 of the Bill of Rights, such as rights of personal autonomy, privacy, and equality. AG Kobach's interpretation of the law and actions place the state at risk of infringing on those fundamental rights, and limiting freedom for trans people worsens conditions for all women by re-entrenching the very gender stereotypes that have underpinned centuries of women’s oppression.
On August 18, 2023, Judge Watson granted the motion to intervene, thereby ensuring that the transgender community impacted by the very issues at the center of Kansas v. Harper would be entitled to make their arguments and have their voices heard in by the Court.
Discovery closed November 8, 2023. An evidentiary hearing on the Attorney General’s request for a temporary injunction was held January 10-11, 2024, in Shawnee County District Court before Judge Watson. On March 11, Judge Watson ruled in favor of the temporary injunction, ensuring that for the duration of the case, Kansans will not be able to change their gender markers on their drivers licenses. The ACLU of Kansas filed a notice of appeal on March 14, 2024. The Kansas Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the ACLU of Kansas’s and the Kansas Department of Revenue’s appeals challenging the temporary injunction on January 27, 2025 at the Kansas Court of Appeals in Topeka.
On June 13, 2025, the Kansas Court of Appeals lifted the trial court’s injunction barring the Kansas government from making changes to gender markers on driver’s licenses. In a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel, the Court observed that there was no evidence “beyond mere speculation” to support the trial court’s finding that allowing transgender people to change their gender markers would somehow impair the identification of criminal suspects. The Court of Appeals also held AG Kobach had not shown a substantial likelihood of prevailing on his view that S.B. 180 requires all new and renewed driver’s licenses to list the driver’s sex assigned at birth.
On June 13, 2025, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled in our clients’ favor and held that Attorney General Kobach was unlikely to prevail on his view that S.B. 180 requires all new and renewed driver’s licenses to list the driver’s sex assigned at birth. Under the decision, the temporary ban was reversed.
On September 29, 2025, the Kansas Supreme Court denied Attorney General Kobach’s appeal of the Appeals Court decision. The Kansas Court of Appeals’ favorable decision was thus made effective on Monday, October 6, and KDOR announced it will resume its process of issuing, renewing, and updating Kansas driver’s licenses with respect to gender markers starting Tuesday, October 7. People in Kansas should be able to update gender markers on their licenses to reflect their gender identity while this case proceeds.
After being denied by the Kansas Supreme Court, the same week Attorney General Kris Kobach urged the legislature to convene a special session in November to change the law to more explicitly prohibit gender marker changes on driver licenses and undermine the courts' ability to intervene.
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