News & Commentary

“On its inception, our clients were interested in pursuing a change in policy. They were not in it for the money, and so damages claims were never a part of the case,” said Kunyu Ching, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Kansas, in a conversation for the Kansas Reflector podcast.

Kansas has long had an ambivalent relationship with capital punishment. Three decades after the state passed its current death penalty law, its new execution chamber remains unused.

The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit in 2021 stating the police department violated federal rights by incorrectly including people on the gang list as gang members or associates based on vague and overbroad criteria.

“I also think that in general there is a heavy potential here for discrimination against protected classes or demographics,” ACLU of Kansas Staff Attorney Kunyu Ching said. “I think it’s common knowledge these sorts of algorithms can produce bias, including racial bias.

“It’s an opportunity for people to tell their own stories, explain to the court their experiences of being on the gang list and how deeply it’s affected them,” said Kunyu Ching, staff attorney at Kansas ACLU.

Groups like the ACLU have opposed the installation of automatic license plate readers for their ability to capture photographs of thousands of license plates per minute, citing a lack of rules surrounding the technology, ittle or no oversight and not enough protections for the privacy of drivers.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas has granted preliminary approval of a proposed settlement in a class action lawsuit challenging the Wichita Police Department’s alleged violation of the constitutional rights of class members by including them in its gang list database.

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.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and local mental health care providers are launching a new program next month. The ACLU of Kansas sued the state over its waiting list, arguing that the backlog is unconstitutional. That case is ongoing.