News & Commentary

Attorneys for the ACLU of Kansas and Attorney General Kris Kobach's office sparred in court Wednesday over the issue, which comes amid the ongoing legal dispute over the impact of a new law, Senate Bill 180.

“We are gratified that the court has seen that our clients have a vested interest in the outcome of this case, and should be entitled to make their arguments,” said Sharon Brett, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas. “… This case is about trans Kansans’ well-being and their ability to live freely."

“It seems like one of the most aggressive police raids of a news organization or entity in quite some time,” said Sharon Brett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, adding that it seemed “quite an alarming abuse of authority.”

Quindaro in Wyandotte County was once a thriving, multiracial community, inextricably linked to the region’s history before, during and after the Civil War. This week, the ACLU of Kansas is releasing a carefully curated, more than 40-page analysis of the former township.

The ACLU of Kansas is asking people to study the history of Quindaro to envision a more just and equitable Kansas. Quindaro, the organization argues, is more than a site of historic significance, known mostly as a stop along the Underground Railroad.

Constant testing did nothing to reduce COVID transmission, but it was very effective at reducing everything else. From a few weeks into the pandemic through the end of 2022, each time one of us tested positive, staff would pack us off to the quarantine unit. We’d be locked in there with a bunch of other people who’d also tested positive, until we tested negative. No TV. No radio. No books. We had the option of making one 20-minute phone call each day, during the same 20-minute window when we had the option of taking a shower. 

The cost of defending election laws enacted in 2021 has now surpassed $1 million as the litigation winds its way through the federal and state court system.

In wake of the attorney general’s effort to undo the consent order, Kansas ACLU executive director Micah Kubic said Kobach ought to rethink the “sheer indecency of this attempt to weaponize his office’s authority to attack transgender Kansans just trying to live their lives.”

“This is a huge win — for our clients and for anyone else who travels on Kansas highways. We are gratified that the Court saw the ongoing harms of KHP’s unconstitutional practices and stepped in to stop the department’s widespread misconduct,” said Sharon Brett, Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas.