VICTORY: Court Reaffirms Block on Kansas Anti-Voter Law Targeting Civic Engagement Groups

In a victory for the voters of Kansas, the US District Court for the District of Kansas sided with the Voter Participation Center to permanently block the enforcement of an anti-voter provision in Kansas Law HB 2332, reaffirming that voter engagement is protected free speech under the First Amendment.

HB 2332, passed in 2021 after the Kansas Legislature overrode the Governor’s veto, prohibited out-of-state organizations from mailing advance mail ballot applications to Kansas voters, and prohibited voter assistance organizations from prefilling absentee ballot applications sent to potential voters. This law made it a crime for many organizations to help voters request ballots.

In 2021, the Voter Participation Center, a nonprofit civic-engagement organization which helps to register and turnout voters, including to vote by mail, filed suit against the Kansas Secretary of State, the Kansas Attorney General, and Johnson County District Attorney. Later that year, the state agreed to a permanent injunction on the portion of the law that prevents out-of-state entities from sending vote-by-mail applications. Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Kansas attorney Mark Johnson represented the non-profit. 

In 2023, the US District Court blocked the enforcement of anti-voter provisions in Kansas Law HB 2332, ruling that the prefilling ban was “an unconstitutional infringement on plaintiff’s First Amendment rights to speech and association.” The state appealed and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals returned a portion of the case back to the district court for further consideration. On July 3, 2025, the district court, following the guidance of the Tenth Circuit Court, once again found that the restrictions in HB 2332 violate the First Amendment by stifling pro-vote by mail speech.

“HB 2332 is a dangerous law, which is why it has been blocked again and again by the courts,” said Tom Lopach, president and CEO of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Voter Participation Center (VPC). “We fought back to protect Kansans and all Americans from similar assaults on their freedom to vote. We are grateful to the Court for reaffirming the unconstitutionality of this law and we will keep working to ensure all eligible Americans can have their voices heard through voting.”

“This decision affirms what the Constitution makes clear: encouraging voter participation is protected First Amendment speech,” said Danielle Lang, senior director for voting rights at Campaign Legal Center. “Kansas’s law was one in a nationwide trend by state legislatures moving to restrict this fundamental right. The strong path forward for Kansas, and this country as a whole, is to encourage the work of nonpartisan, public interest organizations that strive to remove barriers to the ballot and fulfill the promise of democracy for all Americans.”

The Voter Participation Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 2003 to help underrepresented Americans register and vote. Since then, the organization has helped more than 6.6 million people register and cast ballots.

The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s rights to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process.