by Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector
May 19, 2025
TOPEKA — A Kansas reproductive rights advocacy group, backed by a Washington, D.C. law firm, sued state officials over a new law banning financial contributions from “foreign nationals” to support or oppose constitutional amendments.
The group, Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, argued in a complaint filed in federal court Friday that House Bill 2106, which passed the Legislature in April and is set to go into effect July 1, is broad, vague and unconstitutional. The group said the bill inhibits its ability to advocate for or against future constitutional amendments. Kansans for Constitutional Freedom and its donors have received contributions from foreign nationals, the lawsuit said.
The complaint drew a connection between HB 2106 and opposition to the 2022 ballot measure that sought to limit reproductive rights. Voters rejected the proposed constitutional amendment by a 59-41 margin.
“Rather than accept that an overwhelming majority of Kansas voters rejected the 2022 Amendment on its merits, opponents of abortion rights blamed ‘foreign influence’ for their failure at the ballot box,” the complaint said. “Moreover, HB 2106 was meant to make it harder for KCF specifically to engage in advocacy related to Kansas constitutional ballot initiatives.”
Kansans for Constitutional Freedom was the primary engine of opposition to the 2022 amendment, spending more than $11 million in a statewide campaign encouraging voter turnout. In the lawsuit, the organization said it intends to advocate for or against constitutional amendments in the future.
The lawsuit references a forthcoming constitutional amendment that will appear on voters’ ballots in August 2026 that seeks to elect Kansas Supreme Court justices by popular vote, abandoning the current nomination and appointment system. Kansans for Constitutional Freedom said it already secured funding to oppose the amendment, but HB 2106 would hamper the organization’s plans. The organization argues the restrictions within HB 2106 are “targeted not at the ‘foreign interests’ Kansas claims it means to silence, but at those who associate with them.”
“Through a series of exceedingly broad, highly invasive, and at times completely incomprehensible restrictions, HB 2106 will muzzle the speech of U.S. citizens and domestic organizations far more effectively than that of the foreign nationals Kansas claims it means to target,” the lawsuit read.
HB 2106 retroactively prohibits indirect or direct contributions from a foreign national used for promoting or opposing a constitutional amendment. Any person involved in campaigning for or against an amendment already has to submit a series of campaign finance reports, and the bill added a new provision requiring non-foreign donors to certify they haven’t received more than $100,000 in the preceding four years from foreign nationals. If the law goes into effect, any person who knowingly received $100,000 or more in contributions from a foreign national in the past four years is barred from participating in constitutional advocacy for up to four years.
The lawsuit named nine members of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, the commission’s executive director, Wade Wiebe, and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who is permitted under HB 2106 to bring criminal charges against anyone who violates its provisions. The ethics commission, which is set to be renamed as the Kansas Public Disclosure Commission under a new law that takes effect in July, is able to bring civil action against those who violate HB 2106.
During the bill’s legislative hearings, proponents took particular issue with the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a left-leaning dark money group that has received millions from foreigners and involved itself in ballot measure campaigns across the U.S. Kansans for Constitutional Freedom took in more than $1.5 million in donations from the fund in 2022, according to Open Secrets, an independent website that tracks money in politics.
Topeka-based law firm Irigonegaray and Revenaugh, a criminal defense and personal injury firm, and the D.C.-based Elias Law Group, which has challenged and drawn ire from the Trump administration, are representing Kansans for Constitutional Freedom.
Both firms also are involved in the recently filed lawsuit on behalf of three Kansas advocacy organizations challenging a new law that eliminates the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.
