News & Commentary

The families, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas and the law firm Ballard Spahr, want a Douglas County District Court judge to issue a temporary injunction on the ban.

Kobach and top legislative leadership had wanted Republican lawmakers to address SB 180 at a special session in addition to partisan redistricting. While amending the law could resolve statutory interpretation issues, it would not resolve constitutional claims raised by transgender people represented by the ACLU.

After the Kansas Supreme Court declined in September to hear an appeal on Senate Bill 180, the case is now back in Shawnee County District Court. The lawsuit pits Attorney General Kris Kobach against Gov. Laura Kelly's administration and a group of transgender Kansans represented by the ACLU.

“Mr. Kobach is claiming that he is standing up for girls and women,” ACLU Executive Director Micah Kubic wrote on May 14, 2024. “But what he is really doing is continuing his decades-long crusade against our shared values and fundamental rights, using his misleading legal interpretations to try to transform the law into a tool that persecutes Kansans instead of protecting them.”

In 2023, Shawnee County District Judge Teresa Watson issued a temporary injunction blocking such changes. KDOR and the American Civil Liberties Union appealed, and the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned Watson’s injunction in June.

"We know that accurate gender markers are a matter of safety and well-being for transgender Kansans," ACLU attorney Julie Murray said last week after the high court denied Kobach's petition for review. "The Kansas Supreme Court's decision this week will finally bring an end to nearly two years of government intrusion on trans Kansans' privacy and put a stop to the attorney general's efforts to forcibly out people in their daily lives."

“We look forward to KDOR resuming gender marker changes on driver’s licenses at the earliest possible time,” said Monica Bennett, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas, in a news release.

The ability to now change gender markers on driver’s licenses comes largely from the ACLU of Kansas’ intervention.

“I want every transgender Kansan to be able to live their lives authentically,” said Kathryn Redman, a 65-year-old resident and a plaintiff in the case, Kansas v. Harper, brought on by the ACLU and Stinson LLP.