Kansas gender law faces court challenge

Attorneys will argue Friday over whether a Kansas law restricting bathroom use and invalidating IDs for transgender people should be temporarily blocked.

LAWRENCE — Attorneys will argue Friday in court over whether a judge should delay enforcement of a state law that invalidates driver’s licenses and birth certificates for those who changed their gender marker and restricts bathroom use based on sex assigned at birth.

Two trans men from Lawrence filed a lawsuit last week in Douglas County District Court to challenge Senate Bill 244, which took effect Feb. 26. The unnamed plaintiffs say the law violates constitutional rights to personal autonomy, privacy, equity, due process and expression, could subject them to harassment and violence, and would jeopardize their mental health and employment.

ATTORNEYS WITH the American Civil Liberties Union and the Philadelphia-based Ballard Spahr law firm, which represent the plaintiffs, appeared by Zoom for a scheduling conference Tuesday in Douglas County District Court with Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and other attorneys for the state. Journalists from Kansas Reflector and the Kansas City Star and an attorney from the University of Kansas observed the hearing from an otherwise empty courtroom.

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