photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Attorney Adam Hall argues a case to a panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals, from left, Judge David Bruns, Judge Rachel Pickering and Judge Kim Schroeder, on April 8, 2025, at Johnson County Community College.

The Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a Douglas County District Court decision declaring a Lawrence housing nondiscrimination ordinance constitutional.

A three-judge panel heard the appeal from Landlords of Lawrence last month, as the Journal-World reported, and issued its 21-page opinion Friday.

The judges concluded that “State and local governments have a legitimate interest in protecting the affordability and quality of housing” and did not find the amendments to Chapter 10 of Lawrence’s City Code to be unconstitutional on their face.

The group Landlords of Lawrence sued the City of Lawrence two years ago, saying that the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance in Chapter 10 was “unconstitutionally vague” and was preempted by federal immigration law. The ordinance prevents renters from being discriminated against based on their source of income — including their use of housing vouchers or other government assistance — or immigration status. District Judge Mark Simpson ruled last May in the city’s favor and dismissed the landlords’ lawsuit, prompting the appeal.

The appellate panel found that the Chapter 10 amendments are not preempted based on the current status of federal law, as the landlords had argued, while noting a possibility “that federal law on the subject of immigration may change in the future.”

In addition, the judges found that Landlords of Lawrence currently lacked standing to challenge the amendments as violative of the Fourth Amendment. That challenge hinged on a possibility that the landlords’ property or records may be subject to inspections by government agencies, but at this point in time they have not yet been subjected to such searches.