News & Commentary

Floyd Bledsoe saw his first New Year's Day as a free man this year after spending 16 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. In 2000 he was sentenced to life in prison by a Kansas court for the murder of his 14-year-old sister-in-law. His conviction was based on a web of lies, failure to utilize available DNA testing, and alleged prosecutorial and police misconduct.

Months after being granted the unprecedented power of prosecuting "voting crime" in Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach has found 3 cases to pursue, despite prosecutors in both counties having already decided not to prosecute. Kobach is charging Lincoln L. Wilson in Sherman County with a felony for double voting, and Betty and Steven Gaedtke with misdemeanors for unlawful voting and advance voting unlawfully.Executive Director Micah Kubic said Kobach has been “particularly zealous about trying to find something to justify this new law that he got passed, so I’d be really concerned about the merits of the individual cases.” Read the rest of the story in The Wichita Eagle here.

Doug Bonney, Legal Director of ACLUKS testifies on Wednesday, September 2nd at the State Capitol against K.A.R. 7-23-15, which would impose a 90 day period during which voter registration applicants would be required to complete all of the voter registration requirements under Kansas law. K.A.R. 7-23-15(b).Read his testimony and news coverage on the hearing below.

In the Kansas City Star on August 30th, Kris Kobach proposes throwing out over 30,000 incomplete voter registration applicants due to failure to provide the "proof of citizenship" documents now-required by the Secretary of State's office. The ACLU of Kansas weighed in below."Doug Bonney, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said election officials have long kept incomplete applications “in suspense,” prior to the new proof-of-citizenship requirements, and there was never a need to clear the records.So why should there be a time limit now that it’s more difficult to register? he asked.“I don’t see any reason to limit it,” Bonney said, “except that with 30,000 now on the list, it’s gotten to be an embarrassment for Kobach.”

During Summer 2015, the ACLU of Kansas is on a statewide tour talking about civil liberties in Kansas today. The tour is called Where Freedom Stands: Civil Liberties in Kansas Today.Recently, Executive Director Micah Kubic went to Hays, KS and was welcomed into an ACLU's member home to speak on the state of civil liberties in Kansas today.“We exist to defend constitutional rights and to protect and strengthen those rights,” he said. “Kansas is on the front line of every single civil liberties battle raging in the U.S.“We have our work cut out for us on all of those issues. But the good news is that we are being pretty successful on all of those issues given a political environment that is not always entirely friendly. Things are going very well. But the fight for our rights is a grinding daily struggle, and nowhere in the country is that more true than right here in Kansas.”Read the entire article at the Hays Daily News from June 20, 2015. 

In the fall of 2013, the University of Kansas expelled Navid Yeasin for bad conduct that took place off-campus during the summer of 2013.  As part of the grounds for expulsion, KU considered tweets Yeasin had posted about his ex-girlfriend.  KU also ordered Yeasin not to post anything on social media about his ex-girlfriend. Because KU's restrictions on the content of Yeasin's speech on social media raise serious First Amendment issues, the ACLU of Kansas has filed an amicus brief with the Kansas Court of Appeals in the case challenging the expulsion.ACLU Amicus Brief - Yeasin v. KU  

Great news!After organizations from across the state came together to oppose SB 175, Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick announced yesterday that he does not plan to debate the bill, a bill that would force universities to use public funding to support discriminatory student organizations.The ACLU of Kansas, Equality of Kansas, National Organization for Women, Americans United, Mainstream Coalition, as well as student voices and faith leaders from across Kansas proved that this discrimination is not acceptable for the state of Kansas.Thank you for your support on this issue! Your voice matters.

Real Encounter Outreach a self-described “evangelistic outreach” group — with a character development message woven throughout held assemblies in the Topeka area school districts. Doug Bonney, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas reached out to the districts holding the assemblies to ensure religious content was withheld during school hours.

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.