TOPEKA — The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas is prepared to challenge the Kansas Legislature’s annual attacks on transgender children, voting rights and reproductive health care while searching for common ground on criminal justice reform and medical marijuana.
The organization’s priorities for the 2023 session are mostly at odds with leadership in the GOP-dominated House and Senate. One of the first bills that was introduced this year would ban gender-affirming care before the age of 21, and there is talk of banning drop boxes or tightening the early voting period. Republicans also made it clear they will respond to last year’s rejection of a constitutional amendment on abortion by testing the limits of protections installed by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2019.
Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, talked about the organization’s plans during a recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast.
“Democracy itself is being challenged in the country right now,” Kubic said. “And democracy means not just voting rights, but is really an idea — the idea that everyone counts, that everyone matters, that everyone is part of the community, that everyone is part of a social compact together.”
Kansas has been on the front lines of the battle over voting rights for years, as former Secretary of State Kris Kobach promoted false claims of mass voter fraud.
The ACLU of Kansas...
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