Coalition Letter To Attorney General Kobach: Withdraw Kansas from Harmful Section 504 Lawsuit

Our Civil Rights are Not Negotiable!

February 21, 2025

Dear Governor Kelly and Attorney General Kobach:

We are writing as the designated Protection and Advocacy agency in Kansas and on behalf of many of the leading disability organizations in our state (see list of Kansas organizations co-signing this letter, below) with respect to the pending lawsuit, Texas v. Becerra (N.D. Tex., Sept. 24, 2024) that Kansas and 16 other states brought to eradicate our rights under federal law.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act unconstitutional and vacate the updated 504 regulations. Some of the public statements and rationale from the attorneys general who filed this lawsuit insist that the reason for initiating this lawsuit was what they believed to be an unenforceable passage in the preamble concerning gender dysphoria, which in turn refers to a federal court of appeals decision. We disagree strongly with those concerns and rationale, as well as the targeting of one category of Kansans. We believe that is not what our state stands for. Kansas should stand for equality for all. Additionally, we would note that recent Executive Orders of the new administration address this issue directly, therefore, under that stated rationale, there is also no reason for this case to proceed. In fact, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, one of the plaintiffs in the case, recently issued a press release stating that he believes the President’s Executive Orders “resolves” his concerns contained in the lawsuit regarding gender dysphoria, “so our mission is complete,” meaning the lawsuit was no longer necessary.

Given the harm this lawsuit will do to Kansans, Attorney General Kobach, we are asking you to dismiss the case, or at the very least, withdraw Kansas from this litigation.

Section 504 was enacted by Congress more than fifty years ago as the landmark civil rights protection for Americans with disabilities. People with disabilities risked their lives peacefully protesting for days on end while occupying federal buildings to rightfully demand the implementing regulations be issued, as directed by Congress. Those 504 regulations, originally promulgated in 1977 and recently updated in May 2024, protect veterans with service-related disabilities, children needing educational accommodations in school, and older adults who want to age at home, among others. The updated rule ensures, among other protections, that people with disabilities are not denied life-saving treatment, as many were during the COVID-19 pandemic, that new kiosks are accessible, and federally funded programs are equally available to people with disabilities. For Kansas to try to invalidate this historical civil rights statute, or to deny the disability community its basic rights under the updated regulation, is not what our state is about, and should not be what either of your administrations stand for.

We want to be clear: our civil rights are not negotiable. We ask you to take immediate action, before the status report is due to the court on February 25, 2025, in Texas v. Becerra, to join with other attorneys general and dismiss the lawsuit, or, at the very least, withdraw Kansas from the case.

Thank you.

Disability Rights Center of Kansas, Inc.

Case Management Services, Inc.

Communityworks, Inc.

GoodLife

Independent Connection, Inc.

Independence, Inc.

Independent Living Resource Center

Jenian, Inc.

KanCare Advocates Network

Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living

Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Keys for Networking, Inc.

Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities

NAMI Kansas, Inc.

Olathe Deaf Senior Citizens Club

Onward Kansans

Out ‘N About Support Services, Inc.

Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Advisory Council

Residential Treatment Services for Southeast Kansas

Resource Center for Independent Living, Inc.

Self-Advocacy Coalition of Kansas

Southeast Kansas Independent Living Resource Center

Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas

Targeted Case Management of Kansas

The Arc of Douglas County

Three Rivers Center for Independent Living