FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Mark McCormick, director of strategic communications, 913-490-4113, [email protected]
OVERLAND PARK, KS -- Kansas Sec. of State and gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach has filed a motion attempting to block the ACLU from releasing his videotaped deposition from the Fish v. Kobach case.
We believe the public has a right to see it.
“The ACLU is a nonprofit and transparently nonpartisan institution dedicated to the principles of liberty and equality embodied in the United States Constitution,” said ACLU Attorney Orion Danjuma. “One of those fundamental principles is the First Amendment, which grants the public the right to know what happened at a public trial and the press the right to report on it. The question for Mr. Kobach is why he is so desperate to hide his own sworn testimony from the people of Kansas.”
What should concern Kansans is the dread with which Kobach describes the video’s possible release.
"...absent a stay, the Defendant will definitely suffer permanent, irreparable harm," and, "Removing the videotape from the protective order seven months after the trial would be particularly injurious to Defendant," Kobach's lawyer, Sue Becker wrote in the motion.
The tape was played in open court. Transcripts have been available online since the trial.
There's no reason to continue hiding the video.
What happened in a case with such profound public ramifications shouldn't be secret, and someone who has shared voter's private information with such abandon, shouldn't now receive the blanket of privacy he so ruthlessly denied others.
Read about the Fish v. Kobach case and view court documents on the case page. Yesterday's motion is available here.