A federal judge ruled Thursday that Kansas government officials are no longer required to change a person’s birth certificate to reflect their gender identity, according to the court document.
District Judge Daniel Crabtree, an Obama appointee, ruled that the constitution does not obligate state officials to change a person’s listed gender on their birth certificate, according to the ruling. The ruling reopened Foster v. Anderson, a 2018 case settled by a consent agreement that said state officials were required to alter birth certificates to match a person’s preferred gender, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. (RELATED: ACLU Sues Over State Law Barring Sex Change Surgery For Inmates)
“The court didn’t reach this conclusion — the parties reached it, and then jointly asked the court to accept their conclusion,” Crabtree wrote in the ruling. “To say it simply, the quoted portion of the Consent Judgment doesn’t represent a reasoned conclusion drawn by a court.”
Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach asked the court to remove the consent agreement because it violated a state law that redefines “male” and “female” to refer to just biological sex, the the Journal.
“The Legislature decided that birth certificates must reflect biological reality, and they were quite clear in how they wrote the law,” Kobach said, according to the Journal. “Today’s decision is a rejection of the activists’ and Governor Kelly’s attempt to twist the English language beyond recognition.”
. The Court has told the Governor what the law clearly means. We now expect the Governor to follow the law and cease changing birth certificates to something other than biological sex at birth. #ksleg pic.twitter.com/VlNjTdQPs3
— Kansas AG’s Office (@KSAGOffice) August 31, 2023
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, the lawyer for the original plaintiffs in Foster v. Anderson, argued that Crabtree’s ruling only said state officials would no longer be forced to change a person’s gender on their birth certificate, according to the Associated Press.
“While today’s decision is disappointing, it’s not the end of the road,” Brianna Johnson, a spokesperson for Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, told the Journal. “We will review the decision, including how it impacts operations and potential next steps.”
Gonzalez-Pagan and Kobach did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Crabtree and Kelly declined to comment further on the matter.
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