Tyler Holmes

@holmestsj

Advocate for a democratic rule of law. Worked to improve the justice system with the American Bar Association, a strategic litigation nonprofit, and an org created by Irish lawyers. Past trial lawyer, KU Law alum. Current candidate for #ksleg in HD 30.

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Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· 25d

I haven't posted about this here, but for the last seven weeks, I've been running for the Kansas House in parts of Lenexa, Olathe, and Shawnee (District 30). The days are long, but there's real joy in talking with your neighbors about what matters most to them. Sixteen days to/through the primary!

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Apr 12

Adding this from an Eagles fan blog because it so effectively undercuts the "but the Super Bowl" or "but the Final Four" argument. www.bleedinggreennation.com/philadelphia...

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Mar 18

KCK, Olathe mayors will get to be voting members of an even larger sports authority (nine voting members become eleven), which retains a Chiefs-appointed member and all sorts of exemptions from state law. tinyurl.com/44ycmubh I will remember this #ksleg for doubling and tripling down on bad ideas.

“I think it’s a complete waste of our time to be giving corporate handouts to billionaires at a point in time that the American people could not have more aggressively and openly said they are sick and tired of it,” said Rep. Alexis Simmons, a Topeka Democrat, during the floor debate. “It would take 248,000 years of working at $100,000 per year to accumulate the same net worth that (Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt’s family) has, which to reiterate again — $24.8 billion in net worth — and the Kansas taxpayers are to finance 60% of this $4 billion (project) when they very clearly could pay for it themselves,” Simmons said. Rep. Paul Waggoner, a Hutchinson Republican, excoriated his fellow conservatives for backing a deal that no “actual economist” would support. He pointed to decades of research that have found professional sports stadiums generate negligible economic growth and no return on investment when publicly subsidized. “I do not have people patting me on the back for what the Legislature has done. I have people that are appalled by the pure economics of it,” Waggoner said.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Feb 4

Unless I missed something, her pushback on mid-decade redistricting was limited almost to selfishness. She was "greatly concerned" the Venezuela "strikes" lacked "congressional authorization" and she's been avoiding the ICE conversation until the last few days. If not to run statewide, why do this?

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jan 29

When I was in Missouri, that state was the worst place to buy car insurance. Now, I am reliably informed Kansas is the worst. #AIslop #wakemeupwhenthisisover

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jan 29

Concern about money in politics is overwhelming and across party lines. 81% of Americans are concerned about the influence of money in politics, including 78% of Republicans, 90% of Democrats, and 82% of Independents. 77% say it poses a threat to elections.
Americans support restoring the ability of Congress and states to set reasonable limits. 72% agree Congress and the states should be able to reasonably regulate and limit money in campaigns and elections, including super-majorities of Republicans (69%), Democrats (83%), and Independents (78%).
There is bipartisan agreement that wealthy donors’ influence is growing and that and that large donors make it harder for ordinary Americans to be heard. 68% say wealthy donors have more influence than a decade ago, and 76% agree large donors make it harder for ordinary Americans to have their voices heard—including super-majorities of Republicans (76%), Democrats (86%), and Independents (81%).

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jan 26

So let's say 12 home games (a great year!). 3.7 million estimated people visiting a year, less 532k at non-team activities (i.e., concerts) and ~80k people going to training camp. www.newspressnow.com/news/2025/07... That's >257,000 people for each game. When only 65,000 go in. No. Just no.

Kennesaw State University is in Cobb County, Georgia, which has Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves. Cobb County paid up to $300 million in the early 2010s to relocate the Braves from Fulton County to Cobb County, hoping for similar economic returns as Kansas is now.

Bradbury studied the move and said the county only got an extra $3 million in tax revenue from the stadium. That’s for a team that plays 81 games a year and has annual attendance numbers four times higher than the Chiefs.

“There’s no such thing as a free stadium,” Bradbury said. “You can’t just spend $1.8 billion of taxpayer money for free. You can’t pull that money out of thin air. It’s going to have to come from somewhere.”

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jan 26

All due respect to the reporter on this one, but you cannot have 15 home games. The total number of home preseason and regular season games is ten (2 + 8 or 1 + 9). You'd have to not get a bye in the playoffs *and* watch the better seeds go out early. And you'd have to be hosting the SB to have 14.

Of the 3.7 million people expected to visit the Chiefs’ projects, 532,000 would visit for non-team related activities such as concerts, corporate events and other sports, the state said.

That suggests almost 3.2 million people would go to the stadium projects for Chiefs games. The Chiefs can host, at most, 15 home games in a season. That would include two preseason games, nine regular season home games, three playoff games and the Super Bowl — which doesn’t happen every year.

That means the state estimated at least 215,000 fans will show up each game, whether they had a ticket to watch the game or were at a nearby establishment. Economists say those numbers are ludicrous for a 65,000-seat stadium.

Every team will play 17 regular-season games with one bye week. Teams will alternate seasons where they host nine regular-season games and one preseason game, or eight regular-season games and two preseason games. The NFC will have eight regular season home games in the 2025 season.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jan 21

"Proctor has a history of promoting partisan-based changes to election law, including restrictions to early voting he engineered last year. He [wants] to eliminate early voting and complained that women stole the 2022 election on abortion rights after seeing them in long lines at polling places..."

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jan 17

The argument gender markers on IDs impact public safety is laughably weak, as found by the KS Court of Appeals last year. Over 45 states allow people to make these changes. The second is more run-of-the-mill punitive policy. But the third! Oh, just read the bill! kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/...

Kansas House Bill 2204, by Representative Rebecca Schmoe. The legislation passed the House 85-35 this week.

"AN ACT concerning certain international organizations; declaring such
organizations have no power to enforce any policy or regulation within
the state of Kansas or it's {the} political subdivisions thereof.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
Section 1. The world health organization, united nations and the
world economic forum shall have no jurisdiction or power within the state
of Kansas. No rule, regulation, fee, tax, policy or mandate of any kind of
the world health organization, united nations and the world economic
forum shall be enforced or implemented by the state of Kansas or any
agency, department, board or commission, of the state or any municipality
or other political subdivision of the state.
Sec. 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the statute book."

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jan 17

"My focus this year is squarely on affordability," writes Kansas Speaker Pro Tem Blake Carpenter. The rest of the email: trans Kansans should not be able to change the gender marker on their IDs; Rs are enforcing law that prohibits using SNAP benefits to buy candy and soft drinks; UN, WHO, WEF bad.

Public safety was a central concern throughout committee testimony. Law enforcement officers rely on accurate identification when serving warrants, booking inmates, and coordinating with other agencies. Inconsistent records make that job harder and increase risk for everyone involved. HB 2426 restores a uniform standard so officers can depend on state databases to reflect objective, verifiable information.

Medical professionals raised similar concerns. In emergency situations, biological sex can be a critical factor in diagnosis and treatment—especially when a patient cannot speak for themselves. Clear and accurate records help first responders and hospital staff make fast, informed decisions. This bill ensures state-issued documents support that reality instead of complicating it.

During a recent Senate Government Efficiency Committee hearing, legislators pressed the Department for Children and Families on two issues with significant taxpayer implications: SNAP payment errors that could soon cost Kansas tens of millions of dollars, and long delays in implementing the Legislature’s directive to restrict SNAP purchases of candy and soft drinks.

On SNAP payment errors, lawmakers focused on the financial consequences of federal changes that now penalize states for administrative mistakes. Under new federal law, Kansas could be required to cover a share of SNAP benefit costs if error rates remain above six percent. Based on current trends, committee members were told that failure to bring those errors down could cost Kansas roughly $41 million per year—money that would come directly from the State General Fund.

I supported this legislation because it draws a clear line of accountability. International organizations like the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the World Economic Forum are not elected by Kansans and are not accountable to Kansas voters. HB 2204 makes clear that these entities have no authority to impose policies, mandates, or regulations within our state. They may offer recommendations, but the final decisions must remain with elected officials who answer directly to the people.

Photo of the representative followed by text. The beginning of the second paragraph states, "My focus this year is squarely on affordability."

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jan 10

I ❤️ Kansas City. #fuckice

A person holds a sign which reads, "We will not normalize this," at an anti-ICE protest in Kansas City.

A person holds a sign which reads, "The wrong ICE is melting," at an anti-ICE march/protest in Kansas City.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Dec 21

Screenshot of text: "In the twelve‐month period ending in March 2025, more than 368,000 cases were filed in federal district courts. As of July 1, 1873, the first year comparable records are available, the number of pending cases in all the lower federal courts combined was less than 30,000. Amid these momentous changes in both the volume of federal law and its significance to our collective life, maintaining the Supreme Court at nine life‐tenured justices sitting en banc is, to use a somewhat technical term, bananas."

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Dec 17

I haven't felt sufficient expertise in an area of law to post on such a site. And incomplete legal advice is bad legal advice. Still seems like a petty response to someone trying to help. The claimed ethos of the profession but clearly not the design. open.substack.com/pub/justicet...

Court IT is bad, and when it’s really bad you go to jail.

You read that right: when court tech doesn’t work, the wrong people wind up in prison. In multiple states, standard data transfers from old case management systems (CMS) to new ones led to closed warrants being reopened. Meaning, the next time that person is pulled over for an out taillight, they end up being arrested on an incorrect warrant. In other states, rolling out a new case management system has also meant people being kept in jail longer than their sentence. It shouldn’t be the case that launching a new court CMS leads to a habeas lawsuit, but here we are.

Most people go to court without an attorney.

With no right to an attorney in civil cases and attorneys being expensive, about 75% of civil cases have one person who represents themselves. It’s worse when we drill down. For example, only an average of 4% of those facing eviction have an attorney, versus 83% of landlords. How does this discrepancy impact so-called “self-represented litigants”? One study found a significant bias against people representing themselves in court, including that the monetary value of their claim was too high. By contrast, a randomized control trial found that people represented by an attorney in eviction court were 4.4 times more likely to retain possession of their apartments than similar tenants who didn’t have an attorney.

There’s no national group that represents the public’s access to the courts.

There are plenty of organizations that help courts do better. Major national organizations train judges, improve court administration, and support ancillary groups, like legal aid, to support their clients in court. However, all of these groups are optimizing for different constituencies, like judges, court staff, technology vendors, or those that qualify for certain services. Not a single one considers the court-going public their chief constituency. Unfortunately, this makes sense, because courts were never designed for the public in the first place.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Dec 17

Not to get too into the weeds, but the hypothetical lacks detail. A vague "their" which leaves the audience wondering on which property the cut trees were. No discussion of what the lay user did with the advice or whether this went to court. The person simply didn't "prevail under that statute."

Chad, a licensed attorney in Kansas, likes to participate in various online forums in which legal questions are discussed. Some of the discussions involve lay people with questions about the law. These questions are, very often, clearly from people seeking legal advice regarding their specific legal matter.

One evening Chad read a post from a person with the user name TreeJustice4867 in a different state who was having a property dispute with their neighbor. TreeJustice4867 said that while they were at work, their neighbor cut down some old growth trees on their property because the neighbor thought they were unsightly. TreeJustice4867 wanted to know how to proceed with legal action and what kind of damages to expect.

Chad was not licensed in TreeJustice4867's state, which, like Kansas, restricts the practice of law to licensed attorneys in that state. However, after a brief look at the other state's statutes, Chad believed he had a decent enough grasp on the legalities to respond to the internet post.

Chad provided a detailed reply to TreeJustice4867. He prefaced his post with a statement that "I am a lawyer but I am not your lawyer and I am not licensed in your state." Chad went on to tell TreeJustice4867 that under their state's timber laws, they were entitled to treble damages. Chad told TreeJustice4867 that they should write a demand letter, told him what specific statutes to cite, and said that if the neighbor refused restitution that TreeJustice4867 would have an easy time prevailing in court.

As it turns out, Chad did not know that the other state's treble damages statute only applied to commercial timber. TreeJustice4867 was unable to prevail under that statute and was upset at what he believed was bad legal advice. TreeJustice4867 was able to figure out Chad's identity through his post history, and filed a disciplinary complaint in Kansas against Chad.

Under KRPC 5.5(a), a lawyer shall not practice law in a jurisdiction in violation of the regulation of the legal profession in that jurisdiction. Chad provided specific legal advice about another state's law to a resident of that state, and was not licensed to practice law in that state.

By giving advice based on a misunderstanding of the other state's tree laws, Chad also violated KRPC 1.1, which requires competent representation. Competence is defined as the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness, and preparation reasonably necessary.

Although tailored to attorney websites, ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility Formal Opinion 10-457 addresses some considerations for attorneys who are offering legal information to the public, including through websites. Lawyers are permitted to offer legal information, either about the law or their services, provided it does not mislead readers, and should ensure that the legal information is accurate and current. Qualifying statements and disclaimers are helpful but may not insulate an attorney from a rule violation. "Although no exact line can be drawn between legal information and legal advice, both the context and content of the information offered are helpful in distinguishing the two."

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Dec 17

Not the Kansas Office of the Disciplinary Administrator (for attorneys) brushing off feedback on their last ethics refresher email. Guess they didn't expect anyone to be upset they called a qualified, well-meaning but imperfect answer on a free legal answer site the unauthorized practice of law.

Note: We received a few inquiries following the most recent ethics refresher, No. 252. We want to emphasize a couple of points. Ethics Refresher No. 252 was a hypothetical scenario involving an attorney licensed in Kansas but engaged in conduct in a jurisdiction where he was not licensed. Each jurisdiction will have its own definition of what constitutes the practice of law and what constitutes the unauthorized practice of law. Attorneys must ensure that they are in compliance with the disciplinary rules in the jurisdiction that governs their conduct. As always, feel free to reach out to our office with any questions regarding the Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Sep 24

Curious about what the choice of venue (Washington County) and outside counsel say about the AG office's strategy here.

A map of Kansas counties with Washington County, along the state's northern border, pointed out.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Sep 19

Sen. Moran's schtick has always been vagueness. I know. But after almost 28 years in Congress after eight in the Kansas legislature, he could wield more power than he ever imagined and leave a meaningful legacy. What was it all for, Jerry?

A screenshot of a skeet quoting another: "A handful of Republican Congress members can stop this any time they want to." The quoted skeet: "Part of our constitutional crisis is that Republicans are stopping Congress from playing its fundamental oversight role."

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Sep 4

20.43 Department of Health.—There is created a Department of Health.
(1) The purpose of the Department of Health is to protect and promote the health of all residents and visitors in the state through organized state and community efforts, including cooperative agreements with counties. The department shall:
(a) Identify, diagnose, and conduct surveillance of diseases and health conditions in the state and accumulate the health statistics necessary to establish trends.
(b) Implement interventions that prevent or limit the impact or spread of diseases and health conditions.
(c) Collect, manage, and analyze vital statistics and other health data to inform the public and formulate public health policy and planning.
(d) Maintain and coordinate preparedness for and responses to public health emergencies in the state.
(e) Provide or ensure the provision of quality health care and related services to identified populations in the state.
(f) Regulate environmental activities that have a direct impact on public health in the state.
(g) Regulate health practitioners for the preservation of the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
(2) The head of the Department of Health is the State Surgeon General and State Health Officer. The State Surgeon General must be a physician licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459 who has advanced training or extensive experience in public health administration. The State Surgeon General is appointed by the Governor subject to confirmation by the Senate. The State Surgeon General serves at the pleasure of the Governor.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jun 17

In 2016, Trevor Noah argued Trump wanted to be an African strongman. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIHR... Trump's sons, like President Museveni's, want the same.

A picture of Ugandan President Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba with a 2022 tweet. The post read, "It wouldn't take us, my army and me, 2 weeks to capture Nairobi."

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Jun 3

Reminds me of this photo from Malawi. Police officers would sometimes go to round up street connected people (including children playing with rubber bands!) in camouflage. The intimidation and cruelty are the point. www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...

A police officer dressed in camouflage, holding a large gun, and wearing a helmet with customized spikes on his shoulders and helmet.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· May 8

"It seems like we are much better at catching people that are committing misdemeanors than people that are actually a danger to society." www.thebulwark.com/p/the-shame-... Yes.

Tyler Holmes@holmestsj· Mar 31

Imagine praising your father for taking a principled stand and excusing yourself from having principles in the same interview. rollcall.com/2025/03/27/d...