There's a fair, even-handed profile in the Times today of Kris Kobach, the law professor who's taken the lead role in legal advocacy for local communities seeking to implement their own immigration-related ordinances. (See his CIS report). My only quibble with the article is the headline writer's description that "a lawyer uses the legal system to try to bring policy change," based on the reporter's observation that Kobach's activism represents his "re-thinking the conservative tenet that the courts should not be a forum for policy change." It's the Left that uses the courts that way, seeking to overturn laws duly enacted by the elected representatives of the people. Kobach's fight is precisely the opposite, and precisely what conservatives have been doing for years — defending laws passed by communities against legal assaults from the Left.
The article also mentions his political ambitions; he was chairman of the Kansas Republican party until early this year and is running for Secretary of State. If he's successful, I wouldn't be surprised if he had his eye on the Senate or even the White House. He's only 43, a graduate of Harvard, Oxford, and Yale, led the Justice Department's response to 9/11, has a family out of central casting, and was an Eagle Scout, for crissake. How about Jindal/Kobach in 2016?
