Housing, education among top issues for local elections in Kansas
28 July 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said it’s ‘likely’ that his legal battle over gender marker changes could go to the state Supreme Court.
Kobach filed a lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court last month, arguing that a new law would require the sex listings on driver’s licenses to reflect an individual’s sex at birth. The ACLU has filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit on behalf of five transgender Kansans, which is set for an Aug. 16 hearing.
In federal court, the Republican leader is also requesting that the state no longer follow a 2019 consent decree that requires gender marker changes on birth certificates.
“I think the key question… which the ACLU wants to bring, and I believe we will win on… is what is the constitutionality of the statute. That’s a question that’s more likely to get to the Supreme Court,” Kobach said in an interview Thursday. “If you’re talking about the Kansas Supreme Court, they have discretion to decide what they take, and I think it’s more likely they would go to the central issue about the constitutionality of the statute.”
Kobach issued a legal opinion last month, arguing that SB 180, a new state law defining biological sex, would require driver’s licenses and birth certificates to reflect sex at birth. It sparked backlash from Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s administration, which directed state agencies to defy Kobach’s interpretation of the law.
Kelly issued the following statement last month.
“I have directed the agencies to follow SB 180 according to their legal counsel’s interpretation of the law. While my administration and the Attorney General’s Office have had many conversations about the law, KDHE and KDOR disagree about its impacts on their operations and will instead keep in place their policies regarding gender markers on birth certificates and driver’s licenses.”
GOVERNOR LAURA KELLY, D-KANSAS