News & Commentary

As a formerly incarcerated individual who successfully navigated the justice system, I understand firsthand the importance of restoring voting rights to citizens returning to public life.

Rashane Hamby, director of policy and research at the ACLU of Kansas, said Kansas’ current forfeiture law has placed an undue burden on claimants and has disproportionately impacted those who don’t have the resources to hire attorneys.

Kansas should also allow executions by hypoxia, Kobach says. The controversial execution method deprives a person of oxygen and was used in the United States for the first time last month. Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, called the proposed legislation extreme.

Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said body cameras would not fix the problems that came up in the two-step lawsuit, in which the ACLU represented motorists. However, he said cameras can be an important tool to encourage accountability.

The ACLU noted that the criminalization of marijuana is a racial justice issue - especially in Kansas. This has disproportionately impacted Black Kansans, who ranked 12th in the nation for the largest racial disparities in arrest rates for marijuana possession in 2018.

Sharon Brett, legal director of ACLU of Kansas, said state government opposition to legal distribution of medical cannabis interfered with personal health care choices of Kansans and conflicted with polling that demonstrated statewide popularity of medical marijuana reform.

Earlier this past summer, in the ACLU of Kansas’ report about the historical and social significance of the Quindaro settlement, we talked about the aspirational Kansas we fear too many residents here have forgotten.

The Kansas Highway Patrol is appealing a federal injunction that will block its troopers from using the “two step” traffic stop tactic that a judge ruled had resulted in the agency violating the constitutional rights of motorists.

“In general, jails are not meant to be hospitals,” Sharon Brett said. “They are not meant to be places where individuals go to receive comprehensive medical and mental health care services. And we shouldn’t be relying on that as such. It is putting a Band-Aid over a bullet hole, essentially.”