Attorney who helped toss Kobach’s voter registration law nominated for federal judgeship
The lawyer who successfully challenged the constitutionality of a voting registration law crafted and championed by former Secretary of State Kris Kobach was nominated to become a federal judge Thursday.
President Joe Biden nominated Dale E. Ho to be a federal judge for the U.S. Southern District of New York. Ho previously headed the ACLU’s voting rights project.
“For nearly a decade, Dale has led our Voting Rights Project, building case law around the country to secure the rights of everyone in America to participate in our democracy,” said Anthony Romero, the executive director of the ACLU. “We need principled judges who will safeguard our rights and protect our democracy.”
Ho was a lead attorney in the 2018 challenge to the law, which required Kansans to produce proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. The statute placed tens of thousands of residents in suspended registration status and threatened their ability to vote in the 2014 and 2016 elections.
Kobach crafted the bill and defended it through a five-year legal battle which ended when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up the case, cementing a lower court ruling that the law was unconstitutional.
Earlier this month, the Kansas Attorney General’s Office agreed to pay $1.9 million in legal fees for the case. Kobach, who represented himself, was at one point held in contempt of court for various legal missteps. As part of the contempt finding, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ordered him to take additional hours of continuing legal education.
A spokesman for Kobach did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kobach is currently running for attorney general. He lost the gubernatorial race to Laura Kelly in 2018.
Mark Johnson, a Kansas City attorney who worked with Ho on the voting rights case in Kansas, called Ho the nation’s preeminent voting rights attorney and said he would be a “fabulous judge.”
Ho also successfully prevented the 2020 U.S. Census from asking people whether they are a U.S. citizen, a provision Kobach says he pitched to former President Donald Trump.
Ho’s nomination will have to be approved by the Senate, where it will require 51 votes.
His nomination comes as voting rights are at the center of the political divide in Washington. Several Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed restrictive voting laws in the aftermath of the 2020 election, as Trump has made unfounded claims that the election was “stolen.”
The new laws prompted Democrats in Congress to push federal voting rights legislation. While the legislation has passed the House of Representatives, a pared down version of the bill is struggling to get enough votes to clear the 60-vote hurdle necessary in the Senate.
Biden has urged Congress to pass a voting rights law and has empowered federal agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs to boost voter registration. Ho’s nomination marks another effort to elevate the issue, even as he isn’t likely to rule on the more contentious voting rights cases that have spread through the country.
“It sends a sign that the issue Dale is known for, voting rights, is something of real importance to the administration,” Johnson said. “As it should be.”