Kobach is vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, challenging the state’s harsh Documentary Proof of Citizenship (“DCOP”) law, which makes it unreasonably difficult to register to vote. The ACLU contends that the DCOP violates the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”). A federal judge has tentatively agreed, issuing a preliminary injunction barring Kobach from enforcing the law while the suit is pending.
Kobach is also the man in this photograph with Donald Trump, taken before the two met together last November. The photo shows Kobach holding a stack of papers; some of the text is visible, including “Draft Amendments to National Voter...” The ACLU reasonably suspected that Kobach was trying to get Trump to amend the NVRA to make it harsher, as a result of which the Kansas DCOP law would no longer violate it. (This would, of course, suggest that the DCOP law was currently in violation of the NVRA, and that Kobach knew it.)
The ACLU requested copies of the relevant documents, but Kobach refused to produce them, saying they had nothing to do with amending the NVRA. The dispute ended up in front of a federal magistrate judge, who eventually required Kobach to produce the documents for a private in camera hearing (meaning no one but the magistrate could see them). Lo and behold, it turned out that Kobach had lied his ass off about what the documents were. The magistrate was none too happy about it, and imposed a substantial fine.
“Defendant made 28 patently misleading representations to the court about the documents, which at the time had not been produced to either the court or plaintiffs, such that the court was required to take defendant at his word. ... Upon in camera review of the documents, the undersigned learned this is clearly not the case. ... Defendant’s statements ‘can be construed as word-play meant to present a materially inaccurate picture of the documents.’ The court agrees with plaintiffs that it would have been obvious to any reasonable attorney... There is a difference between putting evidence in the best possible light and blatantly misstating the evidence.”
Kobach asked the federal judge overseeing the case not to approve the magistrate’s recommendations, but the judge affirmed the decision and the monetary sanctions. Kobach has appealed. (He also tried to appeal the court’s order requiring him to submit to a deposition in the case -- just like every other litigant in every other case is obligated to do -- but his appeal was rejected.)
Reminder: This is the man Trump has entrusted with judging the integrity of U.S. voting. Even leaving aside Kobach’s own unlawful efforts to prevent U.S. citizens (chiefly minorities who traditionally vote Democrat) from voting, and his repeated support of Trump’s lie that he really won the popular vote if you exclude the millions of non-citizens who supposedly voted illegally for Hillary Clinton, I expect Kobach’s job will be much more difficult since he apparently doesn’t know what “integrity” means.
