Nickolaus Hernandez, city manager in Dodge City, said in a statement that the lawsuit does not give a complete picture of the city’s method of at-large commission elections and municipal activities “as it relates to several other cities of the same size and structure across Kansas.”
The ACLU of Kansas has been fighting the Highway Patrol for nearly three years in federal court over a tactic used by state troopers called the “two step,” in which a trooper at the end of a traffic stop takes a couple steps away and then returns to the vehicle to ask more questions.
The civil rights group argues the Kansas Supreme Court incorrectly interpreted federal law when it ruled race wasn’t a factor in the map drawn by the Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas executive director Micah Kubic said the [St. Mary's city] commission had "toed the line of authoritarian censorship."
This week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Moore v. Harper, a North Carolina congressional gerrymandering case. The Moore case hinges on a fringe, extreme legal proposition known as the “independent state legislature theory.”
The ACLU urged the [St. Marys city] commissioners to drop their attempts at censoring the library in a letter sent to the commissioners Thursday, saying banning the proposed materials violated freedom of expression rights.