Kansas AG Kobach rebuts Eagle column, defends stance on disclosing trans students | Commentary

Normally, when a left-leaning journalist writes an opinion column that is critical of me, I ignore it.

There are only so many hours in the day, and it’s not worth the time to respond.

But last week, Dion Lefler wrote a column that was so unhinged and incorrect, I decide to do so.

Lefler’s screed was entitled: “Kris Kobach Should be Impeached for Coercing School Districts to Target Trans Kids.” He was referring to a letter that I wrote to six Kansas school districts that had policies ordering teachers to conceal from parents their children’s transgender status and the fact that their children may be using a different name or pronoun at school.

Such parental exclusion policies violate the constitutional rights of parents.

Two school districts, to their credit, responded to my letter by rescinding their policies; they no longer force teachers to conceal this information from parents. Those districts are Maize USD 266 and Belle Plaine 357.

However, the other four school districts appear to be digging in and maintaining their policies of parental exclusion. They are Kansas City USD 500, Olathe USD 233, Shawnee Mission USD 512, and Topeka USD 501.

Lefler makes numerous errors in his column. But his biggest was when he wrote: “In his threat letter, Kobach cites no actual law, because Kansas doesn’t have one.”

Lefler thinks that because the Kansas Legislature hasn’t yet passed a state statute specifically protecting parental rights in this matter, as Attorney General I have no legal basis for criticizing the parental exclusion policies.

He goes on to call me “our state’s biggest schoolyard bully” for sending the letter to the school districts.

Lefler is not an attorney, so his ignorance of the law can be excused. But if he’s going to write a column about the finer points of the law, then he should at least be smart enough to ask an attorney about it first — especially when his errors will mislead thousands of readers.

I did cite the law in the letter I wrote to the school districts. In fact, the law that I cited is the supreme law of the land—the United States Constitution.

For over a century, the United States Supreme Court has recognized the constitutional right of parents to control the upbringing and education of their children.

The first case was Meyer v. Nebraska in 1923 where the Supreme Court recognized the right of parents to “bring up children” and “to control the education of their own [children].”

The Supreme Court has reiterated the importance of this constitutional right many times since.

Indeed, in my letter I cited a total of nine Supreme Court cases. Evidently Lefler couldn’t be bothered to read them.

Lefler appears ignorant of the fact that a state statute does not need to be passed before a constitutional right can be enforced. This is true with respect to all constitutional rights.

For example, there is no state statute enacted by the Legislature that protects all aspects of the First Amendment. But every First Amendment right is still enforceable in Kansas courts.

As Kansas Attorney General, I can and do protect the constitutional rights of Kansans in court, regardless of whether the Kansas Legislature has passed any statute on the subject.

On the specific issue of teachers being forced to conceal students’ transgender status from their parents, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas has already applied this constitutional right and enjoined the Geary County school district’s policy.

In Ricard v. USD 457 Geary County School Board, the court held that “it is illegitimate to conceal information from parents for the purpose of frustrating their ability to exercise [their] fundamental right” to direct the education and upbringing of their child.

The court also held that the policy would violate the teacher’s First Amendment right not to violate her religious beliefs. Evidently, Lefler didn’t bother to read that case either.

As the chief lawyer for the State of Kansas, one of my roles is to inform Kansas governmental bodies (including local school boards) when I learn that their actions are violating the United States Constitution.

This is especially true when the constitutional right of parents to control the upbringing of their children is being violated and school districts are concealing that violation from the parents.

I informed the school boards that their parental exclusion policies expose the school districts to lawsuit — from both parents and teachers.

Attempting to defend such unconstitutional parental exclusion policies would waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, if not more.

Lefler then makes yet another mistake by parroting an ACLU talking point that it would violate the privacy rights of children if teachers were honest with their parents about the names and pronouns their children were using at school.

While it is true that school-aged children do possess some privacy rights, no court has ever held that children have a constitutional right of privacy against their parents in this context. No such imaginary right exists.

Throughout his column, Lefler throws in a good dose of vitriol. He calls my letter to the school districts “reprehensible” and an “attack” on trans students. He then declares that I must be motivated by profit or political gain. Neither is true.

The attorney general is the chief defender of the constitutional rights of Kansans. I consider it my highest duty to defend those rights. All constitutional rights are important, but the right of parents to control the education of their children and not to be lied to by teachers and staff is a particularly weighty one.

For performing my duty of pointing out this violation of the United States Constitution, Lefler demands that I be impeached. He doesn’t explain exactly what the impeachable offense is. But hey, he’s a journalist — he doesn’t need to provide an explanation.

Lefler’s column is a shoddy piece of work that reveals his ignorance and his irrational bias. He should be ashamed, and newspapers that ran the column should also be embarrassed.

Kris W. Kobach is the attorney general of Kansas. He was formerly a professor of constitutional law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

Kris Kobach should be impeached for coercing school districts to target trans kids | Opinion