Kansas judge tosses out attorney general's personal data disclosure lawsuit against Gov. Laura Kelly

On Tuesday, Kansas district court Judge Teresa Watson dismissed a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) to try to force Gov. Laura Kelly (D) to release hundreds of thousands of Kansans’ personal data.

Kobach filed the lawsuit earlier this month after Kelly and the Department for Children and Families (DCF) Secretary Laura Howard blocked the Trump administration from accessing sensitive data of 730,000 Kansas citizens. The U.S. Department of Agriculture wanted the data of citizens who have applied or received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Kobach argued that Kelly and Howard were “flagrantly violating the law” by not allowing the federal government to investigate “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Kelly and Howard have maintained that sending the data, which includes home addresses, Social Security numbers and birthdates, would jeopardize the privacy of Kansans.

Kobach sought a writ of mandamus, a court order to force a government official to perform a specific order. In her decision, Watson said the state law at issue “on its own does not dictate a specified or clearly defined legal duty on the part of Governor Kelly or Secretary Howard to comply, without exercise of judgment or discretion, to the FNS request for SNAP participant data.”



https://heartlandsignal.com/2025/10/02/kansas-judge-tosses-attorney-generals-personal-data-disclosure-lawsuit-against-gov-laura-kelly/