Kansas Attorney General Blocked from Denying Changes to Gender Markers on Driver’s Licenses
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 13, 2025
CONTACT:
Gillian Branstetter, Communications Strategist, ACLU, [email protected]
Esmie Tseng, Communications Director, ACLU of Kansas, [email protected]
TOPEKA, KAN. – In a victory for transgender Kansans, a Kansas state appeals court has reversed a district court decision barring the Kansas government from making changes to gender markers on driver’s licenses.
In July 2023, Attorney General Kobach filed a lawsuit in state court against the Kansas government agency that issues driver’s licenses, asking the court to hold that a state law, S.B. 180, prohibits transgender people from changing their gender markers on their driver’s licenses. A trial judge granted a temporary injunction, which has blocked the Kelly administration from allowing gender marking changes while the case goes forward.
The ACLU of Kansas, the ACLU, and Stinson LLP intervened in the case on behalf of five transgender Kansans who have been harmed by an unconstitutional effort by Kobach to ban and reverse changes to the gender markers on their driver’s licenses.
Today, in a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel, the Kansas Court of Appeals lifted the trial court’s injunction, which has prevented transgender people from changing the gender markers on their driver’s licenses to reflect their gender identity. The Court of Appeals 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.
Under today’s decision, the temporary ban is reversed, and the Kansas Department of Revenue may resume allowing Kansans to change their gender markers on their driver’s licenses. The Attorney General has thirty days to appeal.
“This decision recognizes that the Attorney General failed to show any harm at all in allowing transgender Kansans the same personal autonomy, privacy, and dignity that all Kansans have,” said D.C. Hiegert, Civil Liberties Legal Fellow for the ACLU of Kansas. “Being required to use a license with the wrong gender marker has already meant that transgender Kansans have been outed against their consent in their daily lives. We commend the incredible courage and sense of community our clients have had in standing up to this attack on all of our fundamental rights.”
“Today’s decision is a welcome victory for our clients and the rights of all people to safe, usable identity documents,” said Julie Murray, Co-Director of the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative. “The Attorney General’s move to target transgender people in this way has always been baseless and discriminatory. As this case returns to the lower courts, we will continue to defend the ability of all Kansans to access driver’s licenses that reflect who they know themselves to be.”
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About the ACLU of Kansas: The ACLU of Kansas is the statewide affiliate of the national American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU of Kansas is dedicated to preserving and advancing the civil rights and legal freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For more information, visit our website at www.aclukansas.org.
