President-elect Donald Trump pauses to pose for photographs as he greets Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016, in Bedminster, N.J.. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Topeka ? In the future, it may come to be known as the picture that launched a thousand pages of legal work.

That now-famous photo of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach going into a Nov. 20, 2016, meeting with then President-elect Donald Trump, holding a document labeled a “strategic plan” for the Department of Homeland Security, has ignited what lawyers sometimes refer to as a “paper war” between Kobach and the American Civil Liberties Union that has now lasted nearly eight months.

“I don’t know what he’s doing,” ACLU attorney Doug Bonney said of the latest filings in the dispute. “It doesn’t look good, that’s correct. At some point you have to admit you made a mistake, accept it, apologize for it and move on.”

President-elect Donald Trump pauses to pose for photographs as he greets Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016, in Bedminster, N.J.. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach holds a packet of papers while posing with Donald Trump in this cropped and rotated photo from the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016, in Bedminster, N.J.. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The ACLU is suing Kobach in federal court in hopes of overturning the state’s requirement that new voters show documentary proof of citizenship in order to register, a law he championed in 2011.

Among other things, the ACLU argues that the law is in conflict with federal National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to accept a federal voter registration form that does not ask for citizenship proof. That law also limits how much information states can require voters to submit for registration.

Kobach disputes that there is any such conflict, and he insists the law is necessary to prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting in U.S. elections. But much of the state law was put on hold last year while the case is being litigated.

Then, the photo of Kobach and Trump was published.

When the photo is expanded, portions of the front page of the document are clearly legible, including a portion of the last sentence at the bottom of the page, which reads “23. Draft Amendments to National Voter …,” an apparent reference to the NVRA. There are also references on the cover page to “illegal aliens.”

Two days after that photo became public, the ACLU filed a motion for Kobach to turn over “all documents and communications related to draft amendments to the NVRA.”

What has ensued since then can be described as a mountain of litigation involving hundreds of pages of motions, briefs, orders and appeals that still isn’t over.

According to Bonney, the fact that Kobach was suggesting changes to the NVRA could be seen as a tacit admission that the federal law does need to be changed in order to allow states to require documentary proof of citizenship.

Kobach, however, resisted turning over the documents, arguing among other things that they were protected under attorney-client privilege and executive privilege.

In April, Magistrate Judge James P. O’Hara rejected Kobach’s arguments and ordered him to hand over the documents, although he was allowed to redact some material.

Kobach appealed that decision to District Judge Julie Robinson, who is presiding over the case, but she declined to review the order. Kobach then turned over two documents, but marked them “CONFIDENTIAL — SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER.”

The ACLU attorneys asked that Kobach’s office remove that designation, but he refused. They then filed a motion for sanctions against Kobach, arguing that he had made frivolous claims in a deliberate effort to delay production of the documents.

On June 23, O’Hara granted the motion for sanctions and fined Kobach $1,000 for making what he called “patently misleading representations” about the documents before they had been turned over to the court.

Kobach then asked O’Hara to reconsider that order, which O’Hara declined to do. Now Kobach is appealing that decision to Robinson.

Meanwhile, Bonney also asked to take a sworn deposition from Kobach, which Kobach objected to, but which O’Hara ordered anyway. That deposition is currently scheduled to take place the week of July 31.

Samantha Poetter, a spokeswoman in Kobach’s office, defended Kobach’s actions in an email to the Journal-World, stating: “Our legal system has an appeals process for a reason. Apparently the liberal media does not feel this portion of our system of government applies to conservatives.”

Currently, the case is scheduled for trial starting March 6, 2018, but Bonney said the case could be decided before then based on the evidence and briefs that have been filed.

The ACLU is expected to file what is called a “motion for summary judgement” by Friday, July 14, asking that the court decide the case based on the law and the uncontested facts in the case.

Kobach’s office will then file its response to that motion, as well as his own motion for summary judgment in his favor no later than Aug. 4.

By Oct. 6, according to a schedule approved June 30, the court could have all the motions and briefs before it in order to decide whether the case can be ruled on at that point, or whether the case will proceed to trial.