TOPEKA — Pivotal court cases challenging laws that have altered the lives of transgender Kansans are approaching turning points, as one moves to a higher court and two others face consolidation.
A case from a group of teens and their parents challenging a gender-affirming care ban for minors will move to the state appellate court. Another that questions the constitutionality of a state law restricting gender markers on driver’s licenses and banning trans Kansans from using their preferred bathrooms in government buildings is waiting on a court to decide whether to temporarily block that law. And another from a trans woman seeking to allow trans Kansans to indicate their preferred gender on driver’s licenses is in limbo.
All three cases were filed in Douglas County District Court.
Issues in the latter two cases will go before Douglas County District Judge James McCabria on Wednesday, when he will consider whether to combine the cases, which challenge different pieces of the same state law, Senate Bill 244, passed earlier this year. The Kansas Attorney General’s Office wants the cases consolidated because they present the same constitutional challenges “arising from the same statute and the same underlying events,” the office wrote in a May filing.
“Adjudicating the two cases separately would greatly increase the burden on the Court and the litigants and would create the possibility of inconsistent outcomes,” the office said.
The attorney for Jamie Miller, the plaintiff whose driver’s license was terminated after Senate Bill 244 went into effect, argued the facts in the cases are too different to combine.
“If the cases are consolidated there is a significant risk that evidence offered in Doe will be prejudicial to Plaintiff in this case. Such an action would defeat the ends of substantial justice. Cases should not be consolidated when evidence offered in one is likely to be harmful to litigants in the other,” said David Brown, Miller’s attorney, in a June 5 court filing.
McCabria denied in March a request to block SB 244 from going into effect.
The GOP-led Legislature passed the bill this year after avoiding public input and overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the bill on Feb. 18. The law took effect soon after.
The law bars people from using bathrooms in publicly owned buildings that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth. Public institutions could face penalties for failing to ensure proper bathroom use, with fines beginning at $25,000 and rocketing to $125,000 per subsequent offense. The law’s supporters said it would make restrooms safer for cisgender women.
Under the law, individuals may be fined $1,000 and charged with a misdemeanor for repeatedly using a bathroom in violation of the law. And an individual who feels “aggrieved” by a trans person’s bathroom use can pursue a private right of action for $1,000.
In May, Attorney General Kris Kobach issued an opinion exempting some public facilities from complying with the law, such as skilled nursing rooms at the Kansas Office of Veterans’ Services. His opinion has no legal weight.
The law also mandates gender markers on driver’s licenses match a person’s sex assigned at birth. Its passage forced the state to invalidate at least 275 licenses.
Witness interrogation
When Douglas County District Court Judge Carl Folsom issued a ruling in May that temporarily overturned part of a state law banning gender-affirming care for minors, Kobach promised to appeal and called the decision “a stark example of judicial activism.”
On June 15, Kobach filed a notice of appeal.
At the center of the case is Senate Bill 63, which was passed in January 2025 after the Republican-led Legislature overrode the governor’s veto. The American Civil Liberties Union and its Kansas affiliate represented a pseudonymous group of kids and their parents in challenging the law less than six months later.
Folsom’s ruling would allow minors to undergo hormone therapy and use puberty blockers, essential treatments if children want to physically transition.
In his 117-page decision, Folsom evaluated the credibility of witnesses on both sides of the case. He applied scrutiny to the state’s witnesses, which included a a plastic surgeon, a medical ethicist, an endocrinologist who treats adults and a neuroscientist and psychologist. The families’ witnesses included a child psychiatrist, a pediatric hospitalist and two pediatric endocrinologists.
Some of the state’s witnesses have testified in cases in several states that center on hot-button issues. The medical ethicist and doctor Farr Curlin, who said gender-affirming medical care was “ethically problematic,” also testified for the state in an abortion case in October in Johnson County.
Chloe Cole testified to her experience in California receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy as a minor. She is a conservative activist who has travelled the country advocating against gender-affirming care for minors. Folsom deemed her credible but gave her testimony less weight because her care didn’t occur in Kansas.
The neuroscientist-psychologist, James Cantor, has testified in favor of gender-affirming care bans in cases across the country. Folsom gave his testimony on the effects of hormone therapy and puberty blockers and the quality of gender-affirming care research little weight.
Lauren Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for Kansas Coalition for Common Sense, took particular issue with Cantor for his previous comments. Cantor specializes in sex and couples therapy for adults and has been recognized for research on pedophilia.
Fitzgerald said Kansas children deserve protection and safe communities.
“That’s why it’s alarming and irresponsible that Kris Kobach cites a man who said pedophilia is ‘not inherently wrong or harmful’ as an ‘expert witness’ in this case,” Fitzgerald said, referencing a 2019 social media post in which Cantor draws a distinction between pedophilia and child molestation.
She added: “Let’s keep decisions about our children’s healthcare between their parents and medical doctors.”
This story previously appeared in the Kansas Reflector.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.