As part of their June 2025 ruling, the appellate judges said SB 180 “can reasonably be interpreted to be limited to ‘sex’ to the exclusion of ‘gender.’” The three-judge panel was comprised of Chief Judge Sarah Warner and Judges Stephen Hill and Karen Arnold-Burger.

Kobach said it was a “mistake” for the Court of Appeals to say gender and sex have different meanings. Kobach argued the terms are interchangeable under state law.

The judges said in their ruling “the Legislature could have included a definition of ‘gender’” in SB 180, or in separate statutes on driver’s licenses they could have written a definition where gender meant biological sex assigned at birth.

The judges said lawmakers may have a variety of reasons for the words they choose to use.

“We simply cannot assume that the Legislature sloppily and hastily adopted legislation with a complete lack of awareness of the context … we must and do give our committed public servants in the Legislature more credit than that,” they said in their ruling.

During oral arguments in January 2025, the judges and attorneys suggested lawmakers could have done a better job writing the first-in-the-nation law based on model legislation. Even Anthony Powell, who is Kobach’s solicitor general, said, “The Legislature didn’t consider every angle.”

More: ‘Words matter’: Will Kansas judges have to ‘fix Legislature’s work’ on anti-trans law?

Kobach apparently disagrees.

“I think the Legislature did a fine job in passing it, and absent judicial activism, we wouldn’t be standing here right now,” Kobach said.

He accused the appellate court of stepping “out of its judicial role and acts in a legislative capacity and says, we are going to act to change or add meaning to a statute.”

The judges indicated they believe they were doing the opposite.

“It is not the court’s role to ‘rewrite legislation,’” the judges said in their ruling. “It is only by rewriting this statute that we arrive at the conclusion propounded by the AG, that they are identical.”

During oral arguments, judges and attorneys openly suggested lawmakers could amend the law to address the issue of interpreting ambiguous laws.

“There’s nothing to prevent the Legislature tomorrow from introducing legislation to define gender in the way they’re arguing it should be defined, the same as they have defined sex,” Arnold-Burger said during oral arguments.

Lawmakers in the 2025 session didn’t heed that advice. A year later, such legislation has been introduced. Kobach said the bill’s clear definitions “will end the litigation, and we will no longer be spending hundreds of attorney man hours on this and clogging the court’s docket as well with this very litigious issue.”

More: Kansas judge considering $1 sanction against Kris Kobach in trans case

What Republican and Democratic leaders say about bill’s priority

Republican leadership was asked why the bill is a priority during a Jan. 13 gaggle with reporters.

“Because it’s a vital statistic,” said Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover. “If you can change something on your birth certificate, why can’t you change the date?”

“Why can’t you change your age?” asked House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita.

“Those are statistics of factual record, and they just need to be what they are,” Masterson said. “That’ll go quickly. I don’t even think you’ll see a lot of controversy in the Legislature on it.”

He did say he expects it to be a partisan issue.

“I don’t know why they keep supporting the boogeyman this much, but for whatever reason, Kris Kobach loses in court so much that they have to change the law so they can actually get a win in the Supreme Court,” said Woodard, the House minority leader, during a Jan. 15 gaggle with reporters.

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, said, “It is not a top issue for Kansans.”

Woodard said Republicans pushing the bill so early in session shows, “Their priority is focused on culture war issues.”

“This is two years in a row of their top priority being bashing on trans people in Kansas, which does nothing to make it more affordable to live, work or raise a family here,” he said.

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.