Legislation

While the ACLU of Kansas appreciates legitimate efforts to protect freedom of speech and believes college campuses are public forums, other provisions in this bill undercut basic values of fairness and freedom of expression. By expanding existing loopholes, this bill will allow government-funded student organizations to exclude individuals from membership or leadership based on discriminatory criteria. This legislation would require public institutions to subsidize organizations, including ethnic supremacist political organizations, that actively exclude and discriminate against students based on political beliefs. Free speech must be protected, but taxpayers should not be compelled to support outright discrimination and exclusion under the guise of free speech.

Enacting the KIRK Act, which expands opportunities for publicly funded discrimination at public colleges and universities.

This bill, which is redundant and ill-defined, risks infringing on constitutionally protected speech and protest rights.

Authorizing students and student clubs or organizations to engage in certain speech or expression at school and providing a poorly defined civil cause of action for violations.

There is a strong coalition of citizens and organizations who will speak to how this bill undermines the ability of schools and teachers to teach the truth about our history and our modern world. In light of this, our testimony will focus on the attempt to ban books from…

The 2021 legislative session was marked by one overlying theme from start to finish for the ACLU of Kansas: playing defense. These defensive efforts came at the expense of expanding rights for Kansans.