News & Commentary

Kansas ACLU Executive Director Micah Kubic said Kobach is either misunderstanding or misinterpreting Title IX in his suit against the rule change.

“We felt like we were fighting an uphill battle,” said D.C. Hiegert, LGBTQ+ legal fellow at the ACLU of Kansas. Hiegert said they hoped that work helped to move Republican lawmakers against the gender-affirming care ban. The ultimate goal, they said, was to convey to lawmakers that Kansans did not want this bill to go into law — especially after the number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills that passed last year. 

"This is a deliberate move to ignore the expressly stated will of the people despite the damaging consequences of these bills,” Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, told me this week. “In their defiance of the clearly established right to reproductive healthcare in the our state constitution, these extremist lawmakers remain out of step with the everyday Kansans they serve.”

“It sets a dangerous precedent, subtly weaving the notion of fetal personhood into the fabric of law,” Rashane Hamby, director of policy and research for the ACLU of Kansas, said in written testimony.

In 2023, Kansas enacted a law attempting to define “transgender” out of existence by restricting the definition of a “woman” to the biological function of producing ova. Not only does this definition negate the experiences of trans women and girls, but it also excludes entire categories of women who are not transgender, such as post-menopausal women, women experiencing reproductive challenges, and intersex women.

She was referring to SB 233, which passed both chambers of the Kansas Legislature and was vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly earlier this year. Supporters of the bill plan to attempt to override it when they come back for a veto override session that begins Monday.

“One would hope that folks would follow the example and figure out the natural conclusion of this which is that it is not legally tenable, it is not popular, it is not based on reality,” ACLU of Kansas director Micah Kubic said.

On Tuesday, Madison Albers, a student at Fort Hays State and co-chair of the American Democracy Project, along with others involved in the polling place effort, delivered 480 signatures in support of the change to Ellis County Clerk Bobbi Dreiling.

The judgment stems from a 2019 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the KHP over its “two-step” approach. That’s where troopers pull someone over, and then seek to reengage the driver after the stop to develop reasonable suspicion to search their vehicle.