Pivotal court challenges to Kansas laws affecting transgender Kansans are moving toward new stages, with one case involving a gender-affirming care ban for minors headed to the state appellate court and two other related cases awaiting a decision on whether they will be combined in Douglas County District Court.
All three cases were filed in Douglas County District Court. The matter brought by a group of teens and their parents challenging a ban on gender-affirming care for minors will move to the state appellate court, while another case questioning the constitutionality of Senate Bill 244 is pending whether a temporary block of the law will be ordered. A third case from a trans woman seeking to allow trans Kansans to indicate their preferred gender on driver’s licenses is also in limbo. Douglas County District Judge James McCabria will consider consolidating the latter two cases on Wednesday.
Judge McCabria previously denied a request to block SB 244 from going into effect. The Kansas Attorney General’s Office asked for consolidation, arguing the cases raise the same constitutional challenges tied to the same statute and underlying events, while the attorney for Jamie Miller, whose driver’s license was terminated after SB 244 took effect, opposed consolidation, saying the facts and evidence differ enough that combining could prejudice litigants.
Senate Bill 244, passed by the GOP-led Legislature after overriding Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto earlier this year, took effect shortly afterward. It bars bathroom use in publicly owned buildings that doesn’t match a person’s sex assigned at birth and requires driver’s license gender markers to match that assignment, forcing the state to invalidate at least 275 licenses. In May, Judge Carl Folsom temporarily overturned part of the state’s minors’ gender-affirming care ban; Attorney General Kris Kobach later filed a notice of appeal on June 15.