2 days ago
Kansas attorney general blocked from denying gender changes on driver's licenses
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas state appeals court has reversed a district court decision barring the Kansas government from making changes to gender markers on driver's licenses, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced Friday.
In July 2023, Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a lawsuit in state court against the Kansas government agency that issues driver's licenses, asking the court to hold that a state law, Senate Bill 180, prohibits transgender people from changing their gender markers on their driver's licenses. A trial judge granted a temporary injunction, which has blocked the Kelly administration from allowing gender marking changes while the case goes forward.
The ACLU of Kansas, the ACLU and Stinson LLP intervened in the case on behalf of five transgender Kansans who claim to have been harmed by Kobach's effort to ban and reverse changes to the gender markers on their driver's licenses.
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On Friday, in a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel, the Kansas Court of Appeals lifted the trial court's injunction, which has prevented transgender people from changing the gender markers on their driver's licenses to reflect their gender identity.
The court observed that there was no evidence 'beyond mere speculation' to support the trial court's finding that allowing transgender people to change their gender markers would somehow impair the identification of criminal suspects.
The Kansas Court of Appeals also determined that Kobach had not shown a substantial likelihood of his view that S.B. 180 requires all new and renewed driver's licenses to list the driver's sex assigned at birth.
As of Friday, the temporary ban is reversed, and the Kansas Department of Revenue may resume allowing Kansans to change their gender markers on their driver's licenses.
The attorney general has thirty days to appeal the court's decision.
'Being required to use a license with the wrong gender marker has already meant that transgender Kansans have been outed against their consent in their daily lives,' said D.C. Hiegert, Civil Liberties Legal Fellow for the ACLU of Kansas.
'We commend the incredible courage and sense of community our clients have had in standing up to this attack on all of our fundamental rights.'
'Today's decision is a welcome victory for our clients and the rights of all people to safe, usable identity documents,' added Julie Murray, co-director of the ACLU's State Supreme Court Initiative.
'The Attorney General's move to target transgender people in this way has always been baseless and discriminatory. As this case returns to the lower courts, we will continue to defend the ability of all Kansans to access driver's licenses that reflect who they know themselves to be.'
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