Doug Bonney

Stephen Douglas "Doug" Bonney, Chief Counsel and Legal Director received his law degree from the University of Kansas in 1985 and is licensed to practice law in the federal and state courts in both Missouri and Kansas. Doug has been Chief Counsel and Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri since September 1, 2008. Before that, Doug was in private practice primarily representing labor unions.

Doug has been a member of the Legal Panel of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri since 1992 and has successfully litigated numerous civil liberties cases for the ACLU including challenges to the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department's parade policy, the Westport Adult Curfew Ordinance, Kansas City, Missouri's Little Hatch Act regulations banning City employees from attending political rallies and displaying political signs, the City of Republic, Missouri's display of a Christian religious symbol (the Ichthus) on its city seal, and the unduly restrictive Prairie Village, Kansas sign ordinance. In 1993, on behalf of the ACLU, Doug represented a group of employees whom the Board of Public Utilities singled out for investigation because of their Middle Eastern national origins. He has also handled a religious free exercise case for a group of Amish people in St. Clair County, Missouri, who objected on religious grounds to displaying the slow-moving vehicle symbol on their buggies. Doug has litigated many other civil liberties and civil rights cases separate from his work for the ACLU.

Doug has been married for twenty-five years and has two children. In his spare time, Doug enjoys working on his genealogy, watching soccer, and playing golf.