Clay Center and Clay County Dispatch

10/16/2025

10/16/2025

OPINION: Kansas officials’ zeal for firing state employee over post leaves agency, taxpayers in the lurch

By Max Kautsch, The Kansas Reflector

For decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment protects public employees from facing adverse employment consequences for their private expression about matters of public concern, such as the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Meanwhile, it is equally well-established that such protections generally don’t apply to workers in the private sector.

But that distinction didn’t stop Senate President and Republican gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson, along with fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Colyer and Sen. Brad Starnes (R-Wichita), from urging the state Department of Education to fire government employee Katie Allen after she used her personal Facebook account to write the words “well deserved” in response to a post she saw in the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting on Sept. 10.

In a reality-distorting twist, it seems that these officials believe that Allen’s personal expression can be regulated not in spite of constitutional limits on regulation of such expression by government employees, but because she is a government employee.

Masterson told the over 2,500 followers of his “Official Account” on social media platform X that “anyone holding such a belief” about Kirk’s death “should not be employed by the state of Kansas and has no place making policy decisions for our children.”

“I urge Education Commissioner Dr. (Randy) Watson to immediately remove Allen from her position at the Kansas Department of Education,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Colyer wrote on X that KDSE “must fire Katie Allen for cause without delay,” and Starnes told the Kansas City Star that “students deserve better than educational ‘leaders’ who dehumanize people whom they disagree with.”

And after the education department terminated her employment, Masterson and Starnes crowed that they had “demanded her immediate firing and resignation” and that “thanks to swift action, she’s out at KSDE.”

Neither Masterson’s campaign, Colyer’s campaign, nor Starnes responded to a request for comment about whether their public statements infringed on Allen’s rights. But all three of them find themselves as potential witnesses in Allen’s lawsuit against KDSE and Watson filed on Sept. 24.

Although none of those power brokers are named defendants, the lawsuit suggests their statements loom large over Watson’s decision to end Allen’s employment in a manner she claims flies in the face of clearly established law.


Protected expression

The first step for Allen to prove her claims is to show that her Facebook comment was protected expression under the First Amendment.

The crucial point here is that even though Allen’s post surely offended the officials who called for her firing, offensiveness alone is not a license for government-sanctioned punishment.

This is because the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized a broad range of protected expression in this country, including hate speech and lies. Exceptions to that rule are very narrow but permit regulation for true threats and defamation.

Moreover, it is a foundational First Amendment principle that the government cannot regulate expression simply because it disagrees with that expression. But the officials’ public statements here make clear that they sought her ouster precisely because they disagreed with her point of view.

Here, Allen’s comment was an expression of opinion that did not even reach the threshold of hate speech, let alone true threats or defamation. Her expression was unquestionably protected.


Balancing rights

Another element Allen will have to prove to win her case is that the government’s interests as an employer did not outweigh her interest in freedom of expression.

Here, Allen’s comment was live for only a few minutes before, as she put it in the lawsuit, she “thought better of the comment” and deleted it.

Even though the comment was publicly available for only a short time, the lawsuit describes significant blowback against Allen, including that she received “actual or veiled threats” by telephone and email, such as an email titled “resign or die” in which the author threatened to “blow your f*****g brains out if you don’t resign.”

While Allen herself surely suffered, nothing in the documents filed in court so far indicate that KDSE was disrupted because of Allen’s post.

If the agency can’t show that Allen’s comments had a negative effect on its day-to-day operations or otherwise compromised the agency’s ability to perform its duties, it will likely have a difficult time proving that its interests outweighed Allen’s right to post on social media in her private capacity.

In the absence of facts to support a contention that Allen’s comments harmed the agency in a way that justified her firing, the door opens for Allen to argue the actual reason she alleges she was terminated: political pressure from public officials.


Motive to fire

It is here that various posts from state officials and candidates for office begin to add up to a paper trail in Allen’s favor.

Allen lost her job less than a week after posting her comment. All three of Masterson, Colyer and Starnes publicly called for Allen’s firing, and at least Masterson and Starnes took a victory lap after she lost her job.

Usually, proving elements in lawsuits requires discovery, but officials’ public statements here afford Allen a head start to argue that her firing was solely motivated by her comment.


Fired because of the expression

Finally, Allen must prove that the agency would not have made the same employment decision had she not posted her comment.

Again, the officials’ public statements are a treasure trove of intent. Before Kirk’s death, Allen was little-known. There is no evidence to suggest that she could have been fired for cause.

Meanwhile, these three officials’ public statements highlight the point that Allen’s comment, and likely nothing else, caused her to lose her job.

In their rush to censor private expression by public employees in the name of protecting the public, well-known public figures have done little more than bolster Allen’s case and increase the likelihood that taxpayers will ultimately have to cover attorney fees for litigation Allen should never have needed to file.

The First Amendment protects the right to speak out, even if that speech is offensive. Unless the people we elect start exercising better judgment — such as choosing not to disregard decades of precedent to advance short-term political goals — KDSE won’t be the last agency on the hook for constitutional violations.

Max Kautsch focuses his practice on First Amendment rights and open government law.

10/16/2025

INSIGHT KANSAS: The Fight Over Maps Is Really a Fight Over JoCo.

By Mark R. Joslyn, University of Kansas

It’s not about defeating Sharice Davids.
After all, a Democrat occupying one of the four congressional seats is nothing new.
It’s not about appeasing Trump. Republicans’ penchant to gerrymander predates his involvement.
It’s about Johnson County.
For decades, JoCo outpaced statewide Republican support.
For example, when Eisenhower carried Kansas with a whopping 69 percent of the vote, JoCo surpassed that mark with 72.5 percent. When Reagan reached 66 percent, JoCo secured 72.4 percent.
Even in Democrat years, JoCo never wavered. When FDR won the state for a second time, JoCo delivered 57.7 percent of its vote to Republican nominee, and Kansas Governor, Alf Landon. When Kansans chose Democrat Lyndon Johnson, a majority of JoCo voters favored Barry Goldwater.
The first signs of change came in 2008.
JoCo’s Republican vote share lagged the statewide average by almost 3 points, the largest such gap since 1917, the last time the county supported a Democrat for president.
By 2016 the gap ballooned to 10 points and expanded in 2020 when the county finally flipped blue.
Democrat advances appeared down the ballot too.
In 2018, Laura Kelley thumped Kris Kobach in JoCo by 17 points, though statewide it was a 5-point race. In her reelection bid, Kelley realized nearly 60 percent of JoCo’s vote and the county’s state House and Senate Democrat delegations increased.
JoCo’s majority support was pivotal in Sharice Davids’ defeat of incumbent Kevin Yoder for the Third District. Her county vote share has since grown to 55 percent.
For the first time in Kansas history a Democrat Senate candidate won JoCo, though Roger Marshall prevailed statewide.
In 2022, Senator Jerry Moran vote share in JoCo dropped to 46.7 percent, down from 62.1 percent a decade before.
And in 2024, Byron Roberson became the first Democrat elected JoCo sheriff in nearly a century.
The changes have rattled Republicans who recognize further decline could be costly.
Trump’s call to redraw the maps mid-decade thus comes at an opportune time, giving Republican leaders cover to once again use their redistricting leverage.
By dividing the county, and merging its parts with strong GOP districts, a gerrymander reduces JoCo Democrats to a fragmented minority, their influence diminished by the dilution of their voting power.
A gerrymander also weakens JoCo’s ascendant political structure. No longer able to organize an efficacious majority around shared priorities, JoCo Democrats would have to rebuild a broader, layered infrastructure that spans the diverse interests of suburban and rural communities.
With their base fractured, Democrats may struggle to unify their message, energize supporters, and build strong leadership.
Should Republican leaders pull it off, a gerrymander will, at minimum, blunt Democratic momentum, diminish Davids’ margins, and facilitate GOP actions against a weakened JoCo operation.
But it’s a tightrope, requiring a special session, supermajorities, considerable arm-twisting, and the risks of legal challenges.
Whether it’s perceived as an assault on democratic principles or smart political strategy depends on one’s partisan leanings.
State legislatures do have the authority to redraw districts. And both parties appear ready to exercise that power.
JoCo’s outsized influence in the state’s electoral calculus and notable shift toward Democrats makes this a weighty moment for Republican leaders.

10/15/2025

With Kansas GOP, the beat goes on

By Rod Haxton, The Scott County Record

When Gov. Laura Kelly and state budget director Adam Proffitt announced plans for “The People’s Budget” listening tour that includes seven stops across Kansas, Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins derisively commented they were living out their inner Sonny and Cher.

First of all, it says how outdated Hawkins is in his thinking when the only musical comparison he can offer is a duet that no one under the age of 50 knows.

And, with our apologies Gov. Kelly, you’re no Cher, and Adam, you’re no Sonny.

At least Hawkins didn’t digress into the era of vaudeville or early radio by comparing them to George Burns and Gracie Allen.

But since Hawkins decided to take us on a musical journey through the Kansas political landscape, we’re willing to go along for the ride.

For those of us old enough to remember Sonny and Cher, they were among the biggest pop stars of the late 1960s and early 1970s, selling more than 40 million albums and charting such hits as “I Got You Babe”, “Little Man”, “The Beat Goes On”, “All I Ever Need Is You” and more.

That’s not a bad career.

Gov. Kelly’s chart-topping legislative hits include fully funding public education, leading Kansas out of the Sam Brownback fiscal fiasco, record budget surpluses, elimination of the state sales tax on groceries, expanded internet access into rural areas and, since taking office in 2019, this administration has attracted over $20 billion in total private sector investments.

Again, that’s not a bad career.

On the other hand, Hawkins and the Kansas Republican Party are a one-hit wonder, sort of like Norman Greenbaum and his top-40 hit, “Spirit in the Sky.”

The only song on the GOP play list is tax cuts for the wealthy. Call it trickle-down economics or call it a “real live experiment” - the lyrics may change slightly, but the song remains the same.

It may be music to the ears of a handful of Kansans, but as any record label executive will tell you, there’s no future if you can’t provide something which has a broad appeal.

“The Beat Goes On” was a song that made everyone feel good - like expanding Medicaid so that more Kansans can lead healthier lives or maintaining SNAP benefits so that low-income families don’t have to struggle to put food on their tables.

Kelly and Proffitt don’t mind going on the road because they genuinely care about their fan base and they want to hear their requests. They’d like nothing more than to take those ideas back to the studio and produce more hits.

Republican lawmakers, on the other hand, prefer hiding from listeners and pretending that they know what’s best. Rather than go on the road, they remain in the studio, convincing themselves that if they produce the same song, but with a different title and a couple of different chords, no one will notice.

The Republican Party is no Joe Cocker who can make a cover song as good or better than the original.

After finding the same old song no longer sells, Republican lawmakers have tried to expand their audience by preventing transgender individuals from changing the sexual orientation on their driver’s license, requiring universities to eliminate DEI initiatives, politicizing the Supreme Court by electing the justices, redrawing congressional maps and claiming that mail ballots are corrupting our election process.

It has been one flop after another.

And when music fans across the state rejected Republican efforts to offer a constitutional amendment that will take away a womans’ right to self-determination, when fans demand some common sense gun control laws, or support Medicaid expansion by an overwhelming margin, or voice their objection to diverting public funds to private schools, tone-deaf GOP lawmakers choose to walk off the stage.

In the collective minds of lead singer Hawkins and his band, Kansans aren’t smart enough to know a hit when they hear one. If they can’t produce a song that breaks in to the top 100, the problem is with their fan base - not the music they are peddling.

Hawkins claims Kelly wants to return to the era of golden oldies “when she drove the budget process.” Those days, says the GOP vocalist who is barely capable of carrying a tune, aren’t coming back.

“The Kansas Constitution gives the sole power of creating a budget to the legislature and unlike the governor, we do our jobs. Hey, Kansas - we got you babe,” said Hawkins, again making reference to the ‘60s pop icons.

Only Hawkins and his ragtag collection of musicians don’t have you Kansas.

The budget process that Hawkins boasts about - that Republicans took out of the hands of the governor - has put the state on the path toward a projected $460 million deficit by fiscal year 2028.

As with Greenbaum’s song, the Republican approach to budgeting is more spiritual than factual. They keep putting the needle down on a golden oldie approach to fiscal mismanagement.

When it comes to poor governance, as a famous musical duo once said, “The beat goes on.”

Rod Haxton is publisher of The Scott County Record. He can be reached at [email protected]

10/15/2025

Interpersonal Relationships and Critical Conversation

By Dr. Glenn Mollette

Your relationships will be few, if you wait for everyone to come to you.
More and more people are living in isolation. Their world is their telephone. Their friends are on their phones. Their church experiences are on their phones. Their recreation is on their phones.
Most all of us spend more time on a cellphone than we ever dreamed of doing. I for one do a lot of my vocational work on my cellphone, so I look at my phone as much as anyone. However, man cannot live by phone alone. There has to be more to life than a cellphone, tablet or computer. There is a world out there. There are people who live in the world who are just like you. They crave connections and relationships. Most are finding them on their cellphones through social media or various Internet sites.
The sad reality of this is that people aren’t really connecting to other people. Cellphone or social media communication is typically very surface communication. We aren’t really sharing that much about ourselves nor understanding that much about what others are doing or going through. Usually, we have perceptions that are not completely accurate.
Interpersonal communication is critical to the mental and spiritual health of our planet. We need communication and real in-person talking. Telephone conversations are critical but personal visits, when possible, are even better.
Political leaders must sit down at the table and talk. The government cannot accomplish anything without verbal one-on-one exchanges or at least small group dialogues.
Family gatherings are critical. People need to feel connected to family. Your family may be small, but you need each other and love must always be the priority. How many terrorist shooters might have been saved from their heinous acts if family and possibly a couple of friends could have had real connections to those people?
As parents, we often back off too much. We give too much freedom and too much space. We need to stay right in the middle of our children’s lives as much as we possibly can. This means keeping the conversations going. We have to continue to care about what they are doing, where they are going and what is going on in their lives. This becomes very difficult as children grow up and don’t want their parents in their business.
Keep in mind that you are still a mom or a dad. You can’t treat your 21-year-old like they are ten, but you can still keep reaching out, expressing love, giving encouragement and embracing them emotionally. Of course, even then, some children grow up to choose destructive lifestyles or make horrific life decisions. People have minds of their own. Yet, if parents and family members keep reaching out to each other it might just be enough to keep a loved one on a good path and living a good life.

10/15/2025

Over 30 Peaceful No Kings Events Planned for Oct. 18 in Kansas
Interactive Map of Locations Available at NoKings.org

*Interviews Available
TOPEKA, KS – There are over 30 peaceful protest events planned in Kansas for the upcoming No Kings Day of Peaceful Action on Saturday, October 18. The events are part of over 2,500 events nationwide in response to President Trump’s continued authoritarian power grabs.

Building on the momentum of the June 14 day of action, which drew more than five million people across all 50 states, the October 18 mobilization is the next chapter in this growing movement. Together, residents in Kansas and millions across America will send a clear and unmistakable message: we are a nation of equals, and our country will not be ruled by fear or force.

Groups organizing the No Kings peaceful protests across the country include ACLU, American Federation of Teachers, Common Defense, 50501, Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible, League of Conservation Voters, MoveOn, National Nurses United, Public Citizen, SEIU, United We Dream, among others. A full list of partners can be seen at https://www.nokings.org/partners

For a full list of participating cities, event details, and spokespeople available for interviews, visit www.NoKings.org or contact [email protected].

All No Kings events adhere to a shared commitment to nonviolent protest and community safety. Organizers are trained in de-escalation and are working closely with local partners to ensure peaceful and powerful actions nationwide

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power belongs to the people.

10/15/2025

For the third week in a row, the Clay Center Lady Tiger Volleyball team is ranked #1 in Class 4A by the Kansas Volleyball Association! After the wins last night in Concordia, they are the league champions, and their record is now 36-2. Clay Center will be a host site for Substate on October 25, with the details coming out soon! Congratulations!

Class 4A
1. Clay Center 34-2 (1)
2. Andale 25-1 (2)
3. Hayden 23-7 (3)
4. Bishop Miege 5-21 (4)
5. McPherson 28-5 (7)
6. Chanute 33-1 (6)
7. Rock Creek 28-6 (5)
8. Circle 21-10 (NR)
9. Paola 23-7 (9)
10. Eudora 24-10 (8)

10/15/2025

Supreme Court adopts new rule for remote hearings and appearances

TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday adopted a new rule that describes a district court’s discretion to hold a remote proceeding or allow a remote appearance, as well as the process to request either and the factors a judge may consider when deciding whether to grant such a request.

The court adopted Supreme Court Rule 103: Remote Proceedings and Appearances through Administrative Order 2025-RL-131 filed today. The rule takes effect immediately.

When developing the new rule, Acting Chief Justice Eric Rosen said the Supreme Court considered a range of scenarios a court might encounter and balanced them with feedback about the new rule it received this summer through a public comment process. Comments came from attorneys, judges, and others interested in the administration of justice.

“There are times when a remote hearing or a remote appearance will contribute to efficient case processing, just as there will be times when an in-person proceeding is absolutely essential to be fair and effective,” Rosen said. “Every case has its own set of facts and circumstances, so it was paramount the rule created a clear framework for someone to make a request while retaining a judge’s discretion whether to grant or deny the request.”

Rule 103 outlines requirements for a party to request a remote proceeding or appearance and what the district court may consider when determining whether a remote proceeding or appearance is appropriate.

A remote proceeding or appearance could be beneficial when the hearing is brief, is for a limited purpose, and conducting it remotely would increase access to justice or help offset issues related to an attorney shortage in Kansas.

Among the reasons a remote proceeding or appearance might not be appropriate are that it would undermine the integrity, fairness, or effectiveness of the proceeding, it would be inconsistent with any person’s rights under the U.S. or Kansas Constitution, or it would not allow public access.