Kansas judge rebukes AG Kris Kobach in gender marker case, issues symbolic $1 fine

A Kansas district court judge sanctioned Attorney General Kris Kobach with a $1 fine for failing to know the law. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach will pay a symbolic $1 sanction because he “should have known” better than to file a motion in a court that did not have jurisdiction.

Kobach, along with his solicitor general, Anthony Powell, was admonished and fined by District Judge Thomas Luedke in a long-running case regarding gender marker changes on driver’s licenses. 

Kobach filed the case in Shawnee County District Court in 2023 against David Harper, director of the Kansas Division of Vehicles, demanding that his division stop allowing gender changes on driver’s licenses. Harper has since retired from the position, and the current director is Deann Williams.

The case reached the Kansas Court of Appeals, which ruled against Kobach in finding there was no harm to allowing people to change their gender markers. In October, Kobach and Powell filed a motion once more in the district court, asking the division of vehicles to maintain a list of gender changes made on driver’s licenses. 

The state noted the division already maintains such a list – rendering the request “completely unnecessary.”

“Respondents seek sanctions against Petitioners contending that the motion was presented for an improper purpose, needlessly increased the cost of litigation, was contrary to the law, and essentially requested the Court disregard the mandate” of the Kansas Court of Appeals, the Division of Vehicles court filing said. 

The state asked the court to dismiss the motion, which violated three different legal principles. The court dismissed the motion and sanctioned Kobach and Powell for “filing a motion that they knew, or should have known, the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider.”

Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said the handling of this lawsuit was another example of Kobach’s ineptitude. 

“I am getting tired of reading orders, opinions, rulings, etc., that continue to point out that our attorney general is wrong on the facts, wrong on the law and doesn’t seem to recognize it,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s going to take. Judge (Julie) Robinson ordered the attorney general to take remedial, basic legal classes because he didn’t understand the rules of evidence in her court.”

Carmichael was referring to a high-profile federal court case in 2018, when Robinson found Kobach in contempt and struck down his signature law that required new voters to prove their citizenship.

Kobach consistently engages in “bad lawyering,” as shown by judges who have sanctioned him, Carmichael said. He also noted Kobach in the House Judiciary Committee last week “flat out misrepresents the holding of the Court of Appeals.”

“He impugns then-Chief Judge (Karen) Arnold-Burger’s opinion in the case, suggesting that the court ignored his evidence, when in fact, that is simply not true,” Carmichael said. “In the case in the court of appeals, the court went through witness by witness, describing why the attorney general had once again engaged in bad lawyering and failed to prove his case.”

In a news conference on the first day of the legislative session, House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, D-Lenexa, also questioned Kobach’s approach on the gender markers court case. 

“The Republicans can’t even define what ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ is across the state, so a legal, statutory definition is probably where they should start when it comes to the gender markers,” he said. “Once again, Kris Kobach has lost in court and is asking the Legislature to clean up his mess.”

Danedri Herbert, Kobach’s spokeswoman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the judge’s sanction.