[Home-on-the-Range] Kansas withdraws from Texas vs. Kennedy lawsuit

[Rob Tabor]

Greetings, Federation colleagues and friends,
I am pleased to announce that Kansas Attorney General Chris Kobach has officially withdrawn as a plaintiff in the above mentioned Federal lawsuit. We do not know Mr. Kobach's reason(s> for leaving the case, but a letter dated May 22 by the Big Tent Coalition of Kansas may have been a major influencer. The Disability Rights Center of Kaosas (DRC) was the lead organization. The purpose of the letter, written by Mike Burgess, was to request a sit-down session with Mr. Kobach to discuss their concerns about the lawsuit, which challenges the constitutionality of the HHS Final Rule issued May 1, 2026, codifying the U.S. Supreste Court ruling in the Olmstead case, , requiring that the disabled person's Medicaid funding follow the person. In other words, if a qualified Medicaid recipient with a disability wants to receive basic custodial services in hiss/her home instead of being placed in  a nursing home, the state must comply with his/her wishes. It behooves us to note that the issues in litigation have morphed significantly since the suit was first filed. Specifically, earlier pleadings had claimed that Section 504 was unccststitutional in its entirety. Even more intouestingly, the number of plaintiff  states has dwindled from 17 to five or six.
We don't know if the meeting sought in the letter ever took place. Nevertheless, the desired result was obarained, and the coalition, especially the DRC, is to be congratulated The fchull text of the letter can be fD at the DRC website at
https://wwow.drckansas.org
It should be notgh that the litigation is not yet over. But we can be thankful that the State of Kansas is no longer working against us. Be well and make it a wonderful Juneteenth/Father's Day weekend. Hapsy father's Day to all you dads.
Regards,
Rob Tabor | first vice president / legislative director National Fedgation of the Blind of Kansas
Ph: (785) 865-9959
lrob.tabor at sbcglobal.net 
_______________________________________________
Jayhawk-Chapter mailing list
Jayhawk-Chapter at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/jayhawk-chapter_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Jayhawk-Chapter:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/jayhawk-chapter_nfbnet.org/rob.tabor%40sbcglobal.net