Kansas' governor gets to defend birth certificate changes in court, a judge rules

FILE - Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly speaks during a rally for teachers and education funding, April 25, 2023, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas. The Democratic governor declared Thursday, June 29, that the state will keep allowing transgender residents to alter their driver's licenses and birth certificates, despite a new law aimed at preventing it. (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) 鈥 A federal judge is considering Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's arguments that a new Kansas law rolling back transgender rights doesn't bar the state from changing the sex listing on transgender people's birth certificates.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled Tuesday that Kelly's office can defend her administration鈥檚 policy of changing birth certificates and accepted its 鈥渇riend of the court鈥 arguments. The state's Republican attorney general, Kris Kobach, argues that a law that took effect July 1 prohibits such changes and requires the state to undo previous ones.

, which was enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature , defines male and female based on a person鈥檚 sex assigned at birth for 鈥渁ny鈥 state law or regulation. If Kobach is successful, Kansas would be only among a few states that don鈥檛 make such changes, along with Montana and Tennessee.

The issue is before Crabtree because he is enforcing a 2019 legal settlement that requires the state to change birth certificates for transgender people. Kobach has argued that the new law nullifies that settlement and has asked Crabtree to revoke

The 2018 lawsuit that led to the settlement was filed by four transgender people and named three Kansas health department officials who oversee birth certificates as defendants, but not the governor. Kelly, therefore, needed the judge鈥檚 permission to make her own arguments.

In her filing that Crabtree accepted Tuesday, that the new law is discriminatory but the health department is not violating it by changing birth certificates. In a separate filing, the four transgender people said 鈥渢he zealous desire鈥 of some officials to discriminate against transgender people doesn't justify reconsidering the legal settlement's terms.

鈥淪uch an outcome would undermine confidence in courts' ability to vindicate constitutional rights,鈥 they argued.

Kobach also is attacking changes in the sex listings on Kansas driver鈥檚 licenses

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