Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach suffered another setback in an ongoing voter ID case with the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday, after a federal judge refused to reconsider an order requiring Kobach to sit for a deposition and pay a $1,000 fine for misleading the court. On June 30, U.S. Magistrate Judge James O’Hara fined Kobach for misleading the court as to the nature of the voting and immigration policy documents he shared with President Donald Trump in a November meeting. Kobach asked O’Hara to reconsider, contending that last-minute changes to the court filing led to the misleading information. Kobach also asked O’Hara to reconsider the deposition requirement, stating it might prevent him from acting as counsel in the case due to a potential conflict of interest. He also said the deposition was “intended to harass, annoy, or embarrass” him.
In a 5-page order, O’Hara upheld the $1,000 fine by noting that Kobach could have informed the court of the last-minute changes before sanctions were levied.
“For the first time, defendant asserts the misrepresentations made in his response to plaintiffs’ motion to compel were due to ‘last-minute editing to meet page limitations; which led to the deletion of language that more fully explained the point defendant was making,’” O’Hara wrote. “This argument for reconsideration again suffers from the fact that defendant could have, but did not, raise it earlier.”
Full Article: Kobach Can’t Duck $1,000 Sanction in Voter ID Case.