(Updated to include comment from governor and the attorney general as well as comments from the Democratic Attorneys General Association)
A Shawnee County judge has dismissed Attorney General Kris Kobach’s lawsuit seeking to force Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration to turn over personal data for the federal food assistance program to the Trump administration.
District Judge Teresa Watson granted the governor’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit and denied Kobach’s request for temporary injunction to compel the Department for Children and Families to provide the information to the federal government.
Watson found that the lawsuit brought by the attorney general was not “ripe” since the Kelly administration was in the process of appealing a decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to withhold $10.4 million each quarter that the state was out of compliance.
“This court declines to order respondents to provide (food assistance) enrollment data to USDA before the federal agency’s own appeals board determines whether it must be provided,” Watson wrote.
“Respondents’ actions to this point have not resulted in termination from the (food assistance) program,” Watson wrote.
“While this may or may not occur in the future, it has not happened. The disallowance may yet be affirmed, reversed, or adjusted downward by the federal appeals board or a federal court,” he said.
Further, Watson said the state may still reach some agreement with USDA and as a result, more facts need to be developed before she could determine whether the Kelly administration had violated state law by not providing the information.
Kobach had argued there was an emergency to comply with the federal government’s request because the Trump administration had given Kansas and more than other 20 states a Sept. 19 deadline to comply with the request for information.
The Kelly administration said the state was never at risk of losing millions in federal funds to administer the food assistance program.
Social services Secretary Laura Howard had said she would immediately appeal any decision by the Trump administration to withhold millions of dollars needed to administer the food assistance program.
An appeal, as Watson noted in her ruling, immediately suspended efforts to halt the money until the dispute is eventually resolved, something that could still take weeks or months to settle, court records indicate.
Kelly said the litigation was avoidable.
“Had the attorney general met with my office prior to filing his lawsuit, as my office had requested, we could have explained the issue without having to go through the time and expense of the court,” Kelly said in a statement.
“It is clear from the court’s order that the attorney general’s arguments were without merit,” Kelly said.
Kobach disagreed with the ruling.
“Needy Kansans have now lost $10.4 million in food assistance because of her political theatrics. That money is not coming back,” Kobach said, making a point that the governor’s chief of staff has said is not true at this time.
“It is laughable to suggest that she will be able to persuade the USDA to change its decision,” he said in a statement.
“And now, because of the governor’s desire to thumb her nose at the Trump administration, needy Kansans will lose another $10.4 million of food assistance in December.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic Attorneys General Association criticized Kobach for wasting taxpayer money on what it called a “meritless lawsuit.”
“Once again, Kobach does not have his priorities straight,” the group said.
“While Democratic AGs have fought hard to restore crucial federal back back to their states and protect (food assistance), Kobach brought a frivolous lawsuit against his own state’s governor that would have placed Kansans’ personal data at risk.
“What’s more, Kobach continues to fail to protect Kansas families against Trump’s unlawful actions, having joined zero of the lawsuits with Democratic AGs that are holding Trump accountable,” the DGA said.
The USDA is demanding that Kansas and other states provide records identifying applicants or recipients of food assistance such as names, birth dates, addresses and Social Security numbers. The USDA has suggested the request is intended to root out fraud and abuse.
The Kelly administration has been steadfast against turning over the information, saying that state and federal law protect personal identifiable food assistance data except when necessary to administer the program.
The administration says the requested data includes sensitive personal information for more than 730,000 Kansans who lived in a household that applied for or received food assistance benefits from Jan. 1, 2020, to July 30, 2025.
The case had been marked by sharp exchanges – either in court filings or press releases – between the two parties.
The governor’s team had accused the attorney general of engaging in “histrionics” and practicing “unsound” law.” The attorney general has accused the governor of lawlessness.
“This case is a sad political stunt by the attorney general as evidenced by the fact that he chose to litigate via press conference before filing this case or even bothering to confer with respondents, who would have told him: do not panic, Kansas has a plan to preserve the funding of the (food assistance) program,” the governor’s team said in a filing.
Kobach and his team had its own tart response in their filing.
“Respondents Gov. Laura Kelly and Secretary Laura Howard may not like the law, but they must follow the law,” they wrote.
“In Kansas, the law requires them to provide requested program data to the federal government and otherwise cooperate to ensure the effective, efficient, and accurate administration of the (food assistance) program.
“Instead, respondents have chosen to defy Kansas and federal law and risk millions of dollars that ultimately help the most vulnerable Kansans.
“It appears that their ‘plan’ is to do nothing and hope that no one will require them to follow the plain text of the law. Their route is neither tenable nor lawful.”
