Kris William Kobach ( ; born March 26, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the attorney general of Kansas since 2023. He previously served as the 31st secretary of state of Kansas from 2011 to 2019. Kobach rose to national prominence as a hardliner on immigration, including his involvement in implementing high-profile ordinances targeting illegal immigration in various American cities.
Raised in Topeka, Kansas, he earned degrees from Harvard University, the University of Oxford, and Yale Law School before working as a law professor and serving in the U.S. Department of Justice. After an unsuccessful congressional campaign in 2004, Kobach was later elected chairman of the Kansas Republican Party in 2007, serving until January 2009. He was elected secretary of state in 2010, and re-elected in 2014. He was a candidate for governor of Kansas in 2018, defeating Jeff Colyer – who had recently become governor after Sam Brownback's resignation – in a close Republican primary, but losing in the November general election to Democrat Laura Kelly 48.01%–42.98%–6.50% in a three-way race with independent candidate Greg Orman.
He later ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2020, placing second in the Republican primary. He returned to elected office after being elected Attorney General of Kansas in 2022."Republican Kris Kobach completes comeback with win in Kansas AG race, vowing to fight Biden," November 09, 2022, Wichita Eagle retrieved November 17, 2022Associated Press: "GOP’s Kobach wins Kansas AG’s race, revives political career: Republican Kris Kobach has won the Kansas attorney general’s race after two big losses tied to his national reputation as an immigration and election law provocateur," 2022-11-09, KWCH-TV Eyewitness News, retrieved November 11, 2022
Early life, education, and academic career Kobach was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 26, 1966. His family moved to Topeka, Kansas, when he was seven years old, where his father owned a Buick dealership, that Kobach worked at while in high school. In 1984, Kobach graduated from Washburn Rural High School in Topeka, Kansas, where he was co-valedictorian, and the student body class president.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude and first in his department. Kobach was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. The director of Harvard's Center for International Affairs, Professor Samuel P. Huntington, was Kobach's faculty advisor from 1984 to 1988. Huntington believed that migration, especially from Mexico and Latin America, represented the most perilous threat to what he called the "American identity." When Kobach taught law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Huntington's writings were required reading in the course.Kobach, Trump and the 'Clash of Civilizations', Lawrence Journal-World, November 27, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
From Harvard, Kobach went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in politics from Brasenose College of Oxford University, having been selected for a Marshall Scholarship. Returning to the U.S., he earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1995, and became an editor of The Yale Law Journal. During this time, Kobach published two books: The Referendum: Direct Democracy in Switzerland (Dartmouth, 1994), and Political Capital: The Motives, Tactics, and Goals of Politicized Businesses in South Africa (University Press of America, 1990).
Legal career From 1995 to 1996, Kobach clerked for Judge Deanell R. Tacha of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Lawrence, Kansas. He began his professorship at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law (UMKC) shortly thereafter. In 2001, President George W. Bush awarded him a White House Fellowship to work for Attorney General John Ashcroft. At the end of the fellowship, he stayed on as counsel to the attorney general. Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, he led a team of attorneys and researchers who formulated and established the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System. In addition, he took part in work to reshape the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2002. After his government service ended, he returned to UMKC to teach law until he was elected Kansas Secretary of State.Rudi Keller, MU chancellor: Professor would get tenure upon return from AG race, Columbia Tribune, August 27, 2015; retrieved June 26, 2017.
Immigration-related activism
Litigation While running for Congress in 2004, Kobach represented out-of-state students on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), in a lawsuit against the state of Kansas, challenging a state law which grants in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. The suit was dismissed for lack of legal standing for the plaintiffs. In 2005, Kobach filed a lawsuit on behalf of FAIR's Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), challenging a similar law in California. In September 2008, the California Court of Appeal held that California's law granting in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants was preempted by federal law. (Martinez v. Regents, 166 Cal. App. 4th 1121; 2008). In November 2010, the California Supreme Court unanimously reversed, finding that the law was not so preempted, because it was based on attendance for three years and graduation from a California high school.
In 2010, Kobach filed a third similar tuition lawsuit, this time in Nebraska.Don Walton, "Immigration lawyer says lawsuit isn't politics", Lincoln Journal Star, January 10, 2010; accessed February 23, 2010 The case was dismissed in a Nebraska district court in December of that year, for plaintiffs' lack of legal standing.
Kobach has litigated numerous lawsuits defending cities and states that adopt laws to discourage illegal immigration. He served as lead lawyer defending the city of Valley Park, Missouri in a federal case concerning an ordinance that requires businesses to use a federal worker verification program known as E-Verify in order to maintain a business license. The ordinance was upheld by Missouri federal judge E. Richard Webber on January 31, 2008 (Gray v. Valley Park, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7238). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), representing the plaintiff, appealed the case to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Kobach prevailed on appeal, and the Court allowed the Valley Park ordinance to stand (Gray v. Valley Park, 567 F.3d 976 (8th Cir. 2009)), saying that the ordinance "addresses the employment of illegal aliens, not Hispanics."
Kobach was the lead attorney defending the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, whose ordinances prohibiting employing and renting to illegal immigrants had been struck down by a federal judge in Pennsylvania and again before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.New York Times, February 10, 2008, p.(A)22. In June 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Third Circuit's decision and remitted the case back to the Third Circuit for reconsideration. Sup. Ct. No 10-722. In July 2013, the Third Circuit concluded again that both the employment and housing provisions of the Hazleton ordinances were preempted by federal immigration law.
Kobach became counsel in another lawsuit, in part involving a Farmers Branch, Texas ordinance that attempted to prevent landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. That case was appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals where it was first heard by a three-judge panel that largely decided against the city. In addition to the costs of the immigration suits, the City had spent $850,000 defending two voting rights lawsuits. The City appealed the panel's ruling, in Case No. 10-10751, with the Fifth Circuit granting an en banc rehearing by the entire Court. After losing there with the costs to the City by that December reaching $6.1 million, the City appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear its appeal in 2014. The city had engaged Kobach to help write the ordinance in October 2006.Man who fought to keep unauthorized immigrants out of Farmers Branch is named to Trump's voting panel, Dallas Morning News, John McClure, May 11, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2017. The plaintiffs in the case, including the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), the ACLU and the ACLU's National Immigrants' Rights Project, were awarded $1.4 million in June 2014.Farmers Branch settles last part of lawsuit over rental ordinance for $1.4 million , Dallas News, John McClure, June 3, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
As of January 2011, it was estimated that Kobach had received $6.6 million from jurisdictions as he defended their anti-immigration ordinances he had helped to create and/or defend.Unconstitutional and Costly, The High Price of Local Immigration Enforcement, Center for American Progress, Gebe Martinez, January 24, 2011. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
As of September 2017, Kobach was listed as "Of counsel" by IRLI, the legal arm of FAIR, which is described as a "hate group," by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).FAIR: Crossing the Rubicon of Hate Hatewatch, Southern Poverty Law Center, December 11, 2007
In August 2018, ProPublica and The Kansas City Star reported that none of the towns where Kobach helped to enact anti-immigration ordinances over a 13-year period still had those ordinances on the books. The ordinances were costly to defend in court, with some localities going bankrupt. At the same time, Kobach personally profited, earning more than $800,000 on legal work for the localities over a 13-year period, paid both by the localities and an anti-immigration advocacy group.
Arizona immigration law Kobach played a significant role in the drafting of Arizona SB 1070, a state law that attracted national attention as the country's broadest and strictest—at the state level—illegal immigration measure, and has assisted in defending the state during the ongoing legal battle over SB 1070's legality."Why Arizona Drew a Line" OpEd by Kobach, The New York Times, April 28, 2010 (April 29, 2010 p. A31 NY ed.); retrieved April 29, 2010. On February 7, 2008, Federal Judge Neil V. Wake ruled against a lawsuit filed by construction contractors and immigrant organizations who sought to halt a state law that imposes severe penalties on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The plaintiffs appealed the ruling, but Arizona prevailed (with Kobach's assistance) in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Chicanos por la Causa v. Arizona, 558 F.3d 856; 2009). The case was further appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. In June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case Arizona v. United States, upholding the provision requiring immigration status checks during law enforcement stops but striking down three other provisions as violations of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.
A 2015 ruling by the United States District Court for the District of Arizona limited the effectiveness of the lone provision of SB 1070 that had been upheld as constitutional. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had hired Kobach, lost re-election in 2016.Melendres v. Maricopa County, United States Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit, March 7, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2017. The suit cost the county over $56,000,000 in legal fees and costs.Rebekah L. Sanders & Megan Cassidy, Joe Arpaio racial-profiling lawsuit costs Maricopa County another $400K, Arizona Republic, March 28, 2017; retrieved June 22, 2017. During this litigation, it was revealed that Kobach was paid $300 per hour to train the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in regard to immigration matters."Joe Arpaio's Nativist Attorney Kris Kobach Gets $300 Per Hour, Plus Expenses, Plus Air Fare, to Advise MCSO", Phoenix New Times, March 25, 2010; retrieved July 6, 2017.
Alabama immigration law