Kris Kobach (previously) is a racist shitbag who engineered Red State America’s voter suppression campaign; he is also (predictably enough) the Kansas Secretary of State, in which capacity he has been representing his office in a lawsuit over his unconstitutional voter ID law.
Kris Kobach is not only a shitty human being, he is an especially shitty lawyer. He is such a shitty lawyer that the judge in the case has ordered him to go take six hours’ worth of continuing education law classes before he will be allowed back in her courtroom.
This seems to have resulted mostly from Kobach’s failure to follow the rules requiring disclosure of evidence to the other side before trial. Despite what you may see on TV, trial does not hold too many surprises for lawyers (except when their pants catch on fire during closing argument, but that is sadly quite rare) because evidence is exchanged in advance so each side can prepare. If you withhold evidence you were supposed to produce, then among other things you can be ordered not to use it at trial. Kobach either did not understand or refused to follow this rule, because the judge described “a pattern and practice by [Kobach] of flaunting disclosure and discovery rules that are designed to prevent prejudice and surprise at trial.” This happened often enough, she said, that it raised a question whether he “repeatedly failed to meet his disclosure obligations intentionally or due to his unfamiliarity with the federal rules,” neither of which are things that federal judges generally consider acceptable.
You Know Trial Went Poorly If the Judge Orders You Back to Law School
[Kevin Underhill/Lowering the Bar]