Meet Kris Kobach

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_05/023597.php

MEET KRIS KOBACH.... I'll look forward to hearing conservatives who are defending Arizona's new immigration law respond to these new revelations, published yesterday by Andrea Nill.

{Thursday}, Arizona lawmakers made a handful of changes to the immigration bill Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) recently signed into effect that appear to be in response to many of the criticisms aimed at the bill. One of those changes replaces the phrase "lawful contact" with "lawful stop, detention or arrest" to "apparently clarify that officers don't need to question a victim or witness about their legal status." However, the legislature also implemented a third change that some call "frightening." As part of the amended bill, a police officer responding to city ordinance violations would also be required to determine the immigration status of an individual they have reasonable suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant.

Wonk Room recently obtained an email written by Kris Kobach, a lawyer at the Immigration Reform Law Institute -- the group which credits itself with writing the bill -- to Arizona state Sen. Russell Pierce (R), urging him to include language that will allow police to use city ordinance violations such as "cars on blocks in the yard" as an excuse to "initiate queries" in light of the "lawful contact" deletion.

As Ezra Klein explained, "{Q}uite explicitly, Kobach is editing the bill to make it easier for police to dream up legal pretexts to hassle brown people about their citizenship."

In case Kris Kobach's name sounds familiar, he used to serve as the chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, where he boasted about his aggressive -- and successful -- "voter caging" efforts. And if you've forgotten, vote caging is "an illegal trick to suppress minority voters (who tend to vote Democrat) by getting them knocked off the voter rolls if they fail to answer registered mail sent to homes they aren't living at (because they are, say, at college or at war)."

Less than three years later, he's crafting and manipulating Arizona's immigration laws to make harassment of minorities easier. Quite a guy.

—Steve Benen

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. No thanks. I already know him. He's my neighbor.

I was kinda hoping he would move to AZ. :)

One little factoid I haven't seen mentioned since his involvement in this AZ law was exposed - he was head of the KS GOP and was forced out after literally breaking it financially. The state party was 4 or 5 months behind in rent for their office in Topeka. That was about a year ago. He has since decided to run for SOS and is getting zero support from the state GOP. He is actually more respected nationally than here where he lives.

I also know a girl in the law school where he teaches. She says the students hate him and the only ones who want to take his class are the far right wingnuts. And there aren't many of them in a law school. LOL

[babylonsister]

2. He sounds like a real POS to me, and I did think you might

recognize the name if you saw this. So you've confirmed again what this OP points out.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. We call him KKKris

He has also never won any lawsuits he has filed concerning immigration. He was the attorney for that town in PA that tried to ban immigrants and had to throw out the legislation after being sued.

He has also tried for years to throw out the Kansas law that allows for instate tuition for immigrant kids who graduate from our high schools. Another failure.

He is a featured regular speaker at our local minutemen rallies. We went to hear him one time at one of those rallies. A KKK rally couldn't be much different. I was actually physically ill when I left.

At another rally where KKKris spoke, a friend went and was engaging in a discussion with the attendees. They got mad at something he said, pushed him into the street and he almost got hit by a car. There was also a little girl who got caught up in that and was also pushed into the traffic.

Kobach is a major piece of shit.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Here's a local piece you might enjoy

http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/22181

[babylonsister]

5. Thanks, proud. Confirms my opinion! nt

[UTUSN]

6. K&R #1 n/t