I don’t know if Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly will win her new lawsuit against Attorney General Kris Kobach. But I’m willing to bet she’ll claim victory in the court of public opinion.
Kelly is going to court to serve Kansans and their interests.
Kobach? He’s looking out for Donald Trump and the GOP.
Here’s the story: Kelly is supporting a new Democratic-led lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking to force it to release contingency funds — already approved by Congress — that would keep SNAP food aid flowing to nearly 188,000 Kansans amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.
The suspension of that aid is a real emergency.
Food pantries in both Kansas and Missouri are trying to pick up the slack left by the federal government, but the task is overwhelming: They simply can’t make up for all those lost SNAP meals.
“You can’t out-fundraise this problem,” Elizabeth Keever, chief resource officer at Harvesters, told The Star.
So why is Kelly suing Kobach in the Kansas Supreme Court?
Simple: The attorney general is standing in the way of the Democratic governor’s legal maneuvers, saying his office — and only his office — can represent the Sunflower State in court.
Maybe he’s right. Maybe not. A court will decide.
In the meantime, tens of thousands of Kansans are in danger of going hungry. Kelly is trying to help them. Kobach isn’t.
All about the process?
It’s not like Kobach doesn’t know how to sue the federal government.
He ran for attorney general in 2022 on a platform that was pretty explicit about his plans to sue the Biden administration.
Kansans voted him into office. And Kobach made good on his promises. Fair enough
Now that Trump is back in the White House, though, the Republican attorney general appears to have forgotten how to defend state interests against federal overreach. Funny how that happens.
