photo by: Associated Press

Several thousand leaflets drop from the fifth-floor rotunda at the Kansas Statehouse in a protest for Medicaid expansion, Friday, May 3, 2019, in Topeka, Kansas. About 15 protesters participated in dropping the leaflets, which depicted overdue hospital bills spattered with blood. Kansas legislators who support expanding Medicaid plan to try and block passage of the next state budget in hopes of forcing a vote on an expansion plan.(AP Photo/John Hanna)

TOPEKA — A civil rights group said Monday it has resolved a lawsuit challenging a blanket ban on signs and restrictive permits for protests at the Kansas Statehouse.

Under the terms of the dismissal, individuals and groups no longer need a permit or a legislative sponsor to reserve space, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas said in a news release.

Hand-held signs are no longer banned. And a person can be banned from the Statehouse only if he or she breaks the law, not just for a rules violation.

“Our clients got essentially everything they’d sought through the lawsuit,” said Lauren Bonds, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas. “We are happy with the outcome and we are happy that Kansans can fully exercise their right to protest in the people’s house.”

The litigation stems from an incident last year involving three Kansas State University students who briefly hung large banners in the Capitol rotunda saying Republican legislators who oppose expanding Medicaid have “blood on their hands.”

The students — Jonathan Cole, Katie Sullivan and Nathan Faflicki — were banned for a year from the Statehouse. The ACLU sued on their behalf.