Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has moved to block Kansas Governor Laura Kelly from joining a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
According to a release from Kelly’s office, “Kansas joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general and governors for the commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Kentucky in suing the Trump Administration over its unprecedented and unlawful attempts to invoke a single provision buried in the federal regulations to strip away billions of dollars in critical federal funding for states and other grantees.
The lawsuit seeks to limit the Trump Administration’s use of this regulation to indiscriminately and illegally terminate critical funding for combating violent crime, educating our students, protecting clean drinking water, conducting lifesaving medical and scientific research, safeguarding public health, addressing food insecurity, and much more.”
However, according to Kobach, she lacked the authority to do so.
The Sunflower State Journal reports that Kobach filed an “amicus” or “friend-of-the-court” brief in federal court in Massachusetts, arguing that Kelly does not have the authority to bring the lawsuit on behalf of Kansas, along with a coalition of attorneys general from Democratic-led states.
Kobach is asking the court to remove Kansas from the case because Kelly does not have the authority under state law to join the case.
According to the Sunflower State Journal, Kobach said only the AG can represent the state in any federal or appeals court — and the AG decides the state’s position.
“While the governor exercises certain executive functions, she does not control Kansas’s legal affairs, including its litigation in federal court,” Kobach said in the brief. “Rather, that authority lies solely with the attorney general … who declined to entangle Kansas as a plaintiff in this litigation — which he believes will ultimately be unsuccessful.”
Kelly spokeswoman Olivia Taylor-Puckett said the governor joined the lawsuit as part of her executive authority.
Taylor-Puckett said the Kansas Constitution vests the supreme executive power in the governor, who is responsible for enforcing the laws of the state, the Sunflower State Journal reports.
“In fulfilling her duty as the supreme executive power in the state of Kansas, Gov. Kelly is standing up against a presidential administration that continues to strip millions of dollars from critical programs that Kansans depend on,” Taylor-Puckett said. “The attorney general was repeatedly asked to exercise his responsibility to protect the people of Kansas and he refused.”
Kobach told the Legislative Coordinating Council on Thursday, August 14, 2025, that he did indeed refuse to do so.
Kobach said he believes the plaintiffs in this case will “lose on the merits.”
“Regardless of the relative virtues or necessities of receiving federal funds in any given area,” Kobach said, “the legal claims that the states are making are not winners.”
The LCC approved a motion made by Kansas Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins to state only that the AG may represent Kansas in litigation and that the governor’s attempt to join the lawsuit is a violation of state law.
Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes and House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard opposed the motion.
Moreover, in the brief, Kobach argues that enforcing Kansas law is not contingent on federal funds.
“The constitutional authority Gov. Kelly invokes — enforcing Kansas’s laws — is not contingent on federal grants,” Kobach wrote. “The Kansas Constitution does not make receipt of temporary disbursements of money from federal agencies an integral component of the state’s governance.
“Tellingly, Gov. Kelly cites no Kansas constitutional provisions or statutes that have been, are, or will be rendered wholly unenforceable due to the cancellation of federal grants. And without any such citation, she has facially failed to plead an injury to her constitutional office. There is no indication that she cannot enforce state law without relief from this court.”
