28 July 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT)- Transgender Kansans are pushing back at Republican attorney general Kris Kobach’s attempt to oust the ACLU from a lawsuit over sex listings on driver’s licenses.
Kobach argues that a new state law would require driver’s licenses to reflect an individual’s sex at birth. The ACLU filed a motion to intervene on behalf of five transgender Kansans earlier this month. However, Kobach is asking a Shawnee County District Court judge to deny that request.
“You cannot try to attempt to make a law or file a lawsuit, and not allow the people that you’re speaking about in the room or at the table,” said Justin Brace, Executive Director of Transgender Kansas.
In an interview Thursday, Brace spoke with Kansas Capitol Bureau about Kobach’s request.
Kobach argues that the ACLU’s motion to intervene could create a legal mess, if his office is successful in preventing the state Department of Motor Vehicles from issuing sex listing changes on licenses.
“It creates a ‘morass’… it creates a problem when you have a party coming in on one side then shifting over to the other side,” Kobach told reporters Thursday. “If we prevail, which we expect we will, then suddenly the ACLU would be opposed to the Department of Revenue… and we will be defending the Department of Revenue, because the Attorney General’s Office is the Chief Attorney for the entire state.”
Kobach also argues that transgender Kansans have no substantial interest in this case. He said he wants to keep the case focused on his argument that SB 180, a new law defining biological sex, would bar sex listing changes on state records.
“They can bring their own case at a later stage, or another alternative would be to bifurcate the case and deal with the question of what the statute means, and a the second stage of the case, if the ACLU wants to come in, let them do that…” Kobach said.
However, Brace disagrees with Kobach’s claims, arguing that transgender Kansans do have a substantial interest in the case, regardless of whether their gender markers have been changed or not.
“I think that every transgender person, every parent of a transgender youth has substantial interest in this…it doesn’t matter whether we just got it changed or not,” Brace said.
A hearing date for the motion to intervene has been set for August 16.
Meanwhile, an injunction hearing for the lawsuit is set for November 1. A temporary order has been extended until then, which prevents the state from issuing sex listing changes on licenses.