ACLU sued Kansas

By Matthew Kelly
The Kansas City Star

(The Kansas City Star) A legal challenge is underway attempting to block enforcement of the new Kansas law that requires transgender residents to surrender their driver’s licenses and to use public restrooms on government property in accordance with their sex assigned at birth.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed the lawsuit in Douglas County District Court on Wednesday on behalf of two transgender men who live in Lawrence.

“The Kansas Constitution’s guarantee of equality under the law prohibits using sex and transgender status to deprive only certain Kansans from participation in public life,” reads the lawsuit, which alleges that the law violates protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.

ACLU attorneys are asking a state court judge to issue a temporary injunction and restraining order that would halt enforcement of the driver’s license revocation and restroom restrictions while the court weighs the new statute’s constitutionality.

Senate Bill 244, which was enacted into law by Republican supermajorities in the Kansas Legislature over Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, went into effect on Thursday.

Kansans who previously updated the gender marker on their driver’s licenses began receiving letters in the mail from the Kansas Department of Revenue this week informing them that their licenses would have to be replaced. The letters were dated Monday, but license-holders interviewed by The Star reported not receiving them in the mail until Wednesday, the day before their credential would be invalidated.

To add to the confusion, the state search website that allows people to check the status of their license still shows some people’s licenses as active. KDOR says that’s because the underlying data is still being updated to reflect whose otherwise valid licenses must be replaced for $8.

ACLU sued Kansas

The lawsuit argues that trans Kansans were not given adequate notice before being told their licenses and birth certificates were being revoked.

“SB 244 is a cruel and craven threat to public safety all in the name of fostering fear, division, and paranoia,” said Harper Seldin, an attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project, in a statement.

“The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police,” Seldin said. “Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”

Who’s named in the lawsuit?

The two trans Kansans named as plaintiffs are identified in the lawsuit by pseudonyms — Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe.

Doe is a university employee whose job requires him to drive state-owned vehicles twice a day, and who regularly uses the men’s restroom closest to his office.

According to the petition, Doe received hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery, and has lived as a man “in all aspects of his life” since 2018.

Moe is a doctoral student who “has known he is male since he was a preteen” and who has received gender-affirming care. He spends more than 60 hours a week on the university campus, where many buildings lack single-occupancy restrooms, the lawsuit says.

“Matthew has previously been harassed in a restroom and fears that SB 244 will embolden further harassment and possible violence,” the lawsuit reads. “He is also concerned that his employer or university could face litigation if he uses men’s restrooms, placing additional pressure on his educational and employment opportunities.”

ACLU sued Kansas

The petition argues that requirements under the new law that people use restrooms and private spaces in government buildings in accordance with their sex assigned at birth will limit transgender people’s ability to fully participate in society.

The restroom restrictions apply to public schools, public universities, libraries, courthouses, state parks, hospitals and interstate rest stops.

The lawsuit names as defendants the state of Kansas, Attorney General Kris Kobach, the Kansas Department of Revenue and its secretary, KDOR’s Division of Vehicles and its director, the Kansas Department of Administration and its secretary.

It will be up to a judge to decide whether to grant a temporary injunction and restraining order while the lawsuit works its way through state court.

Republican lawmakers framed the bathroom and driver’s license bill as an addendum clarifying the intent of a separate 2023 bill barring trans women from accessing female-only spaces.

Kobach cited that law to secure a district court injunction that blocked KDOR from accommodating gender marker change requests for over two years. The Kansas Court of Appeals reversed that decision and the Kansas Supreme Court declined Kobach’s appeal to review last October, prompting the attorney general to ask lawmakers to pass a new bill invalidating state identification documents that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth.

The restroom restrictions were added to the legislation as a separate provision in the House Judiciary Committee without a hearing. Lawmakers then executed a “gut and go” maneuver that allowed GOP senators to sign off on the bill without any public comment, and the rules were suspended to pass it on emergency final action the same day it was debated on the House floor.