Kansas will have to pay $1.9 million in legal fees for Kris Kobach-backed lawsuit failure over voting law
A federal judge approved a deal Wednesday that would see the state pay out roughly $1.9 million in legal fees to a group of attorneys, including the American Civil Liberties Union, stemming from a prolonged court fight over a controversial voting law favored by former Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson signed off on the agreement, which is roughly half of the $3.3 million initially requested by the groups. The parties reached an agreement on the matter and presented it to the judge Friday.
About $1.4 million of that total goes to attorneys involved in the Fish v. Schwab case led by the ACLU. That comes on top of $475,000 in court costs which is due to be paid to a separate group of attorneys for a related case, which was combined in federal court with the ACLU challenge for expediency.
The costs come from a five-year legal battle over legislation originally passed in 2011 and championed by Kobach, which required an individual present their birth certificate or passport in order to register to vote.
The law was struck down by a federal judge in 2018 and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the case last year.
After its introduction, the requirement was blamed for the suspension of thousands of voter registration applications, as residents didn't necessarily have the right documents to prove their citizenship.
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Kobach personally defended the law in federal court, even infamously being held in contempt by Robinson for behaving “disingenuously” during the case proceedings. Kobach was later sanctioned over the matter and ordered to take legal education classes.
He left the secretary of state office in 2018 to campaign for governor, eventually losing to Gov. Laura Kelly. He is currently running for attorney general.
The story has been corrected to include $475,000 in legal fees agreed to in a separate case over the same issues.
Andrew Bahl is a senior statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at abahl@gannett.com or by phone at 443-979-6100.