Kris Kobach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kris W. Kobach (born March 26, 1966 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American law professor, and currently holds the Daniel L. Brenner Professorship at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law (UMKC) in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a prospective politician, who in the 2004 election ran as the Republican candidate for the Congress in the 3rd Congressional District of Kansas.
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[edit] Life
In 1988, Kobach graduated with an A.B. with highest distinction in Government at the top of his major from Harvard College. Subsequently, the British Government awarded him a Marshall Scholarship, which allowed him to obtain an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Oxford University in 1990 and 1992, respectively. He then returned to the United States and attended the Yale Law School, where he graduated with his J.D. in 1995. At Yale, he served as an editor on the Yale Law Journal. During this time, he 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).
From 1995 to 1996, Kobach was a law clerk for Judge Deanell Reece Tacha on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Lawrence, Kansas. He began his professorship at UMKC shortly thereafter.
In 2001, President George W. Bush awarded him a White House Fellowship to work for Attorney General John Ashcroft. Once the fellowship ended, he stayed on as Counsel to the Attorney General. There, shortly after the September 11 attacks, he led a team of attorneys and researchers who formulated and established the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System. He also helped reshape the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2002. Subsequently, he returned to UMKC, where he remains in his chaired professorship today.
[edit] 2004 Election
In the 2004 election, Kobach lost a bid for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District of Kansas as the Republican candidate.
Kobach's contenders in the Republican Party primary were Adam Taff and Patricia Lightner. Taff had previously lost the 2002 election for the same office to Dennis Moore, and Lightner was a six-year veteran state legislator. Kobach beat Taff and Lightner in the primary election, but later lost the election to Congressman Dennis Moore with a 55%-43% margin, Moore's largest victory to that date.
The election brought Kobach national attention, due to Kobach's anti-immigration stance and ties to right-wing extremists.[1] He was given a speaking role on the opening day of the 2004 Republican national convention, and used his moments on the podium to call for the U.S. military to be sent to the Mexican border to block illegal immigration. [2]
He was heavily criticized for his work on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Gun Owners of America, and for accepting donations from people associated with white supremacists and the founding of the militia movement.[3] While running for Congress he was representing Federation for American Immigration Reform in a lawsuit against the state of Kansas, challenging a state law granting in-state tuition to students whose parents brought them to the country illegally. The suit was ultimately dismissed.[4]
[edit] Chairman of Republican Party
On January 28, 2007, Kobach was selected to be the chairman of the Republican Party in Kansas.
