Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office dismissed an open meetings complaint filed by the Kansas Association of Broadcasters, Kansas Press Association, and the Sunshine Coalition for Open Government. The complaint was filed after the media and the public were removed from the Senate gallery during the last day of the 2019 Legislature. Sunshine Coalition president Ron Keefover said the Senate violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act when the public and the media were removed from the chambers amid protests over the Senate leadership’s decision to not to debate Medicaid expansion. Proceedings were disrupted May 29th by a small group of individuals loudly chanting and singing. The nine members of the group were escorted from the Senate by the Capitol Police upon the direction of Senate President Susan Wagle, and media members were escorted from the Senate gallery. “Closing the Senate chambers and not only ousting the media from the floor but threatening them with denial of their credentials to cover future proceedings is simply unwarranted and unheard of in my experience,” Keefover said. He said covering the May 29 protest that disrupted debate in the Senate was “a minimum right under the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press.” After investigating, Schmidt’s office announced Wednesday it could find no evidence that Senate business was conducted during the May 29 recess, and that the Senate has adopted rules in the Kansas Constitution that allow the body to depart from the general requirements of KOMA and authorize the closure of galleries.