A Douglas County judge has temporarily reinstated a Lawrence transgender woman and Army veteran’s license that was invalidated by an anti-transgender state law, citing that the Kansas Department of Revenue likely violated due process.
Like many other transgender people throughout Kansas, Jamie Miller got a letter from KDOR in February saying that her license would be invalidated that week under SB 244, but she could request a hearing within 30 days.
“That’s not what I fought for,” Miller said Tuesday. “I mean, that is like the very definition of oppression, is to say ‘You can’t do that because I don’t like it.’”
SB 244 forces trans people to use bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth as opposed to their gender identity in public buildings. It also bars people from changing their gender markers on their state-issued documents, like driver’s licenses, while reverting any changes that have been made in the past.
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At first, Miller thought that the February KDOR letter wouldn’t apply to her. She underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2013 and obtained a court order legally identifying her as a woman.
“That was my understanding, according to the law at the time, that that was what I needed to do to establish my identity,” she said.
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But KDOR sent another letter March 20 stating that it wouldn’t enforce the license invalidation for five more days and reopened the 30-day window for Miller to request a hearing.
A final letter from KDOR in April said Miller had to appeal within the timeline of the first letter and “[your i]naction on this matter resulted in the invalidation of your credential.” That letter, however, also said she could appeal.
Miller said she called KDOR when she got the April letter, and staff instructed her to send information about her court order via email to appeal. When she did, she was met with a boilerplate auto response and no further communication.
She then contacted attorney David Brown and filed a case against the State of Kansas, represented by Attorney General Kris Kobach.
Douglas County District Judge James McCabria recently issued a temporary injunction in the case. That injunction stays the effect of SB 244 on Miller’s license as the case plays out, meaning Miller can drive again.
“The first thing that I did was went and visited my best friend,” she said.
She surprised her best friend at her doorstep and they celebrated before Miller went to PetSmart to get food for her dog and new fish for her aquarium.
McCabria distinguished the reason for the temporary injunction in his ruling: KDOR violated Miller’s right to due process, and he thinks it’s likely that she will win her case as a result.
McCabria’s ruling, he wrote, is not a stance on the contents or aims of SB 244.
“[T]his Court has no idea whether that Order, or any other argument that Plaintiff might present to KDOR, will succeed in persuading KDOR whether the gender marker on her driver’s license should reflect male or female,” the ruling reads. “That is not the subject of this decision. This decision is about the process, not the subject matter of the underlying dispute.”
The day Miller’s license was invalidated, she went to Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop to buy an electronic tricycle, which she can ride without a license. She said she’s grown fond of it, but is hoping and praying that Kobach doesn’t appeal the injunction so she can get on with her life and the errands that have piled up without access to regular transportation.
“I was excited to go to the bank this morning and be like, ‘But here’s my ID, you can actually look at it now,’” Miller said.
She said that, as a veteran, she supports freedom and anyone’s right to their feelings about her life.
“But you’re not allowed to then go and turn around and try to dictate aspects of my life,” she said.
She hopes people remember the United States of America was founded on the freedom to be and think differently.
“You can hold whatever opinions you hold. Just allow me the courtesy to make my own decisions about my own life,” she said.
McCabria is consolidating Miller’s case with another one challenging SB 244’s two-pronged attack on trans peoples’ identification documents and bathroom use.
The plaintiffs in the second case are two transgender men from Lawrence. In March, McCabria denied a request to pause the effects of SB 244 throughout the course of the lawsuit. He said the plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, didn’t prove that they would face irreparable harm as a result of the bill.
Brown, Miller’s attorney, in June filed an objection to the cases being consolidated.
McCabria scheduled a shared trial for the two cases to run from Tuesday, Sept. 29 through Friday, Oct. 2. He set arguments for Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Here’s the judge’s decision:
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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