The state has the right to refuse trans people the ability to change the gender symbol on their driver’s licenses, according to Kansas District Judge Teresa Watson’s decision on Monday.
Watson’s decision upheld her July 2023 judgment ordering the Kansas Department of Revenue to prevent allowing modifications to the “sex” brand on driver’s licenses. Attorney General Kris Kobach (R-KS), who sued the governor, brought the decision. The administration led by Laura Kelly (D-KS) leadership for allowing transgender people to update their sex identity on licenses.
Following the passage of Act SB 180, also known as the Kansas Women’s Bill of Rights, this lawsuit was filed. Kobach cited this act as justification for suing the Kelly administration for breaking the law by continuing to permit transgender state residents to update their driver’s licenses. By overriding a filibuster from Kelly, it was passed.
The Independent Women’s Forum, the Independent Women’s Law Center, and the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) created a model bill that was introduced in state legislatures across the nation. The bill eliminated the state’s ability to recognize trans people as a legitimate category and instead focused on gender that was deemed at birth as the trait to officially recognize.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued that the state constitution protected the right to change legal identification, citing a 2019 decision that supported abortion rights through a case for bodily autonomy, as well as the increased risk of harassment and discrimination that transgender people will encounter.
Watson, however, disagreed with that argument. To apply the 2019 ruling in Hodes & Nauser v. Derek Schmidt, she wrote in her decision, “would be an unreasonable stretch”.
“Hodes said Kansans have the right to control their own bodies”, Watson wrote. It did not state that Kansans had a fundamental state constitutional right to control what was displayed on a state-issued driver’s license.
In a statement, Kobach said the decision was “a victory for the rule of law and common sense”.
According to Kobach, “the Legislature wisely stated that state agencies should record biological sex at birth,” and the court’s decision to rule out the meaning of the law is unambiguous.
This ruling comes at the height of a string of Republican-led attacks on transgender rights both nationally and in Kansas. Kobach argued earlier this year that transgender children should be forced to go to their parents. Republican lawmakers in the state are currently pushing for a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
A transgender ACLU attorney, D.C. Hiegert, said in a statement, “We will continue working toward a vision of our state that allows all of us to live in peace, free from government persecution and impositions on our core identities.”
It is unclear if the ACLU or Kelly’s office plans to appeal Watson’s ruling.
Further, according to Hiegert, “We remain unconvinced that the imagined harm to the state could ever outweigh the enormous harm our clients and other transgender Kansans have and will continue to suffer from being forced to carry inaccurate identification documents, in violation of their rights under the state constitution.”
