News & Commentary

Doug Bonney, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas was recently interviewed by the Topeka Capital-Journal after  crude text messages between fraternity members came to light.

Legal Director Doug Bonney recently discovered the Crawford County Jail is prohibiting inmates from receiving newspapers, magazines and books from publishers.  A demand letter for information was sent to the jail on March 23, 2015.An absolute ban on periodical subscriptions, including newspapers and magazines, and on orders of books is unconstitutional. Although the right in not unlimited, inmates retain a First Amendment right to receive books and magazines.Read Doug's letter to the Crawford County Jail Sheriff's Office here.

For many, a college education is a necessary precursor to succeeding in the workforce. Under state law, any Kansas student who has attended a Kansas high school for three or more years and has earned a high school diploma or a general educational development (GED) certificate would qualify for in-state tuition at public universities.Kansas House Bill 2139 would repeal this successful law, and would dash the hopes of hundreds of Kansans by preventing them from paying the in-state tuition rate. Federal law provides states with an option to allow students to pay in-state tuition regardless of their immigration status. HB 2139 would work against the federal system and move Kansas in the wrong direction.HB 2139 was introduced during the 2015 Kansas legislative session and has currently not advanced in the legislative process.ACLU Testimony HB 2139 - In-State Tuition for Undocumented StudentsNews Coverage

SB 56, a new bill potentially gives license to criminally charge teachers or principals from discussing material such as Huckleberry Finn.  Executive Director of the ACLU of Kansas was recently interviewed by several local news sources regarding SB56.

Senate Bill 18 would require Kansas law enforcement officers to wear body cameras capable of videotaping interactions with the public. The Senate Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee is currently hearing testimony.

Under Senate Bill 34, Secretary of State Kris Kobach would make violation of advance voting statutes or attempting to vote when not qualified a felony rather than a misdemeanor. It would be a higher-grade felony to vote when not qualified, engage in election tampering or falsely impersonate a voter. The bill will also give prosecutorial power to Kobach.Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said the proposal could penalize individuals who unintentionally failed to follow the correct process in voting. He said there was potential that nursing home residents with aging minds could get hauled before the court for mistakenly breaking a voting law.“Voting-related crimes are exceedingly, exceptionally rare, and even then are most often the result of mistakes like voting in one’s old precinct after having moved to a nearby neighborhood, rather than a willful attempt to subvert an election, but if they occur, should be taken seriously," Kubic said.Read the entire article on the Topeka Capital-Journal from January 30th, 2015.

The mentoring program in question is the LEAP Ambassador Program at Free State High School. The program pairs 15 boys with various members of the community, including school administrators (including Doll), financial industry professionals and even former Kansas University basketball player Wayne Simien."It's outrageous, frankly," Bonney said in an interview. "One of the problems with the glass ceiling is that women do not have these social connections with business people, educators."Read the entire article on The Lawrence Journal-World from January 29, 2015.ACLU letter to Superintendent Doll from January 29, 2015.

The posting of nude photographs online of an ex-spouse or significant other without consent has become more prevalent in our communities and Kansas is trying to ban this practice.Executice Director Micah Kubic was recently interviewed on this topic and  said criminal law “is probably too blunt of an instrument to use on these types of issues.”His organization is sympathetic to the privacy concerns, he said. But he added that lawmakers should tread carefully to ensure they don’t end up restricting free speech.“In general we would be concerned, yes, about criminalizing forms of expression of any kind whether those are images or language. And I think there’s no question that there’s expression that is taking place in these incidents,” Kubic said.Read the entire article on the Wichita Eagle from January 20, 2015.

The ACLU of Kansas promises to push forward on Kansas marriage lawsuit after the U.S. Supreme Court takes cases.Doug Bonney, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, said nothing would likely change while the nation’s highest court considers several marriage-related cases. The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it had decided to take cases related to state same-sex marriage bans. The court will likely issue a ruling this spring.“We are certainly going to continue to press forward to try to get final judgments in our case,” Bonney said.Read the entire article on the Topeka Capital-Journal from January 16, 2015.