SB29 limits the authority of state and local health officials in Kansas to impose certain disease-control measures. It revokes powers allowing the Secretary of Health & Environment or local health officers to order people to isolate or quarantine, or penalize them for violating such orders. It also removes the power of county or joint boards of health to ban public gatherings for controlling infectious diseases. The bill creates a civil cause of action for employees who are fired for following isolation/quarantine guidance or because of vaccination status.
The Kansas State House of Representatives passed SB29 on April 10, 2025 by a vote of 86 to 38. We have assigned pluses to the ayes because this bill upholds the republican form of government guaranteed to every state under Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution. By revoking the sweeping authority of unelected health bureaucrats, it reinforces the principle of separation of powers that the Founders deemed essential to preventing tyranny. It is not the rightful role of government to mandate quarantines, isolate individuals, or compel medical decisions. Public-health mandates violate the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness articulated in the Declaration of Independence and secured by the Bill of Rights. SB29 protects the First Amendment-protected right of the people peaceably to assemble, while also ensuring due process under the Fifth and 14th Amendments. By restoring proper constitutional limits, this legislation pushes back against arbitrary administrative overreach and affirms that individual liberty is not subject to suspension by government decree.
