A Kansas judge ruled on Monday that a ban on changing people's sex on driver's licenses does not violate the state constitution.
District Judge Teresa Watson said it is not a fundamental right to "control what information is displayed on a state-issued driver’s license.”
Watson had first issued an order preventing the Kansas Department of Revenue from changing the “sex” on transgender people's driver's licenses last July. The new ruling upholds that decision indefinitely.
"Information recorded on a driver’s license does not interfere with transgender persons’ ability to control their own bodies or assert bodily integrity or self-determination," Watson wrote in her order.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly began allowing transgender people to change their sex on birth certificates and drivers licenses after she took office in 2019.
In 2023, the Republican-controlled legislature passed SB 180, which legally defined male and female as an individual’s sex at birth based on reproductive capabilities. The law, known as the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” took effect on July 1.
Kelly vetoed the law, but the Republican majority overrode it.
The American Civil Liberties Union represented transgender Kansas residents to argue that the law violated bodily autonomy rights protected by the Kansas Constitution.
The Associated Press reports that in her ruling, "Watson said invoking the right to bodily autonomy to require the state to change driver's licenses would be 'an unreasonable stretch.'"
"The Kansas law doesn't mention driver's licenses or birth certificates but says for the purposes of any state law or regulation, a person's sex is 'either male or female,' based on their 'biological reproductive system' identified at birth," the report adds. "Watson ruled that the law's language is clear and 'there are no exceptions.'"
In a statement about the ruling, Kobach said, “This decision is a victory for the rule of law and common sense. The Legislature wisely stated that state agencies should record biological sex at birth, and today the court held that the meaning of the law is clear." This decision is a victory for the rule of law and common sense. The Legislature wisely stated that state agencies should record biological sex at birth, and today the court held that the meaning of the law is clear. #ksleg https://t.co/O9P1Np8t3n pic.twitter.com/UDU4YvZweQ
— Kris W. Kobach (@KrisKobach1787) March 11, 2024
It remains unclear if the transgender residents or Kelly's administration plans to appeal the ruling.
