“Eric Holder declines Ted Cruz’s request for special prosecutor in IRS case”
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Department of Justice
DOJ Shifts Voting Section Priorities after Shelby County Guts Section 5
From DOJ’s budget submission to Congress (p. 44): Because of the Shelby County case, the Voting Section’s work will necessarily shift to greater affirmative efforts to detect and investigate voting practices that violate federal law, to more affirmative litigation to … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer Goes Deep into Senate Opposition Fight Against Debo Adegbile
Here. … Continue reading
“Obama Civil Rights Nominee Knew He Was Doomed But Wanted Debate, Harry Reid Says”
HuffPo: During a Thursday sitdown with reporters, Reid said that Adegbile, a respected civil rights lawyer who previously led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, met privately with Reid and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) for nearly … Continue reading
Why Did Democrats Bring Up Adegbile for Vote without Accurate Whip Count?
Updated NYT account: But it was the votes of seven Democratic senators to reject Mr. Adegbile that doomed the nomination despite what White House officials described as a sustained closed-door effort by Mr. Obama and his top aides to save … Continue reading
“Harkin: DOJ Civil Rights Nominee Would Have Been Confirmed If He Was White”
HuffPo reports. I have no doubt about that. … Continue reading
Andrew Cohen Ably Makes the Race Case in the Adegbile Debacle
Here. … Continue reading
“One Hour After Opposing Top Voting Rights Lawyer, Senator Fundraises Off Voting Rights”
Think Progress. … Continue reading
Lithwick on Adegbile
Must-read. The only thing I think missing from this is the relevance of Mr. Adegbile’s race in all of this—that may be just as significant as the “cop-killing” meme. ANOTHER GREAT READ from Jesse Wegman. … Continue reading
NYT on the Adegbile Vote
Here. … Continue reading
Breaking: Debo Adegbile Nomination Fails in the Senate
The Adegbile defeat to be DOJ civil rights head shows you how scared Ds are of losing the Senate. And how powerful the Abu-Jamal cop-killer narrative might be against them. … Continue reading
Debo Adegbile Nomination to DOJ Civil Rights Post May Be in Trouble
WaPo: Once considered the world’s best-known death row inmate, Abu-Jamal has written books from his prison cell, had his cause championed by prominent civil rights advocates including Cornel West and Desmond Tutu, and had a street in Paris named in … Continue reading
DOJ Changes Its Page Describing Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act
On February 17 I noted that the DOJ page on Section 5 gave no indication that Shelby County had been decided and that section 5 was no longer being enforced against previously covered jurisdictions. The page has now been updated, … Continue reading
“Prominent Defenders for Nominee to Head Civil Right Division”
NLJ on Debo Adegbile. … Continue reading
New Investigation of DOJ Civil Rights Division Coming?
Ryan Reilly: “Omnibus requires #DOJ IG to spend $1 million on independent review of Civil Rights Division. http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20140113/CPRT-113-HPRT-RU00-h3547-hamdt2samdt_xml.pdf …“ … Continue reading
“Record Could Hinder Confirmation Of Civil Rights Nominee”
Carrie Johnson on the Debo Adegbile nomination. … Continue reading
Three Orders in Texas Redistricting Cases
One grant of atty’s fees; one denying interim attorney’s fees; and one concerning legislative.privilege in the ongoing litigation. … Continue reading
“Civil Rights Division Nominee Praised, Questioned in Senate”
BLT reports on Debo Adegbile confirmation hearing today in the Senate. … Continue reading
Debo Adegbile Confirmation Hearing Wednesday
Notice. … Continue reading
Fight Looms Over Debo Adegbile Nomination to DOJ Civil Rights Division
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Breaking: Pam Karlan to DOJ
Huge news from Jeffrey Toobin: “Confirmed by DOJ: Noted voting rights expert and Stanford prof Pamela Karlan to join Obama admin as Dep Asst AG for voting rights. #scotus” MORE from Josh Gerstein. … Continue reading
Voting Makes List of Top Performance Challenges at DOJ in 2013
From the OIG: The non-ideological, non-partisan enforcement of law is fundamental to the public’s trust in the Department. Yet in a recent report assessing how the enforcement priorities of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division have changed over … Continue reading
“North Carolina Shows Why Voting Rights Act Still Needed”
Ari Berman: A federal judge in Winston-Salem today set the schedule for a trial challenging North Carolina’s sweeping new voter restrictions. There will be a hearing on whether to grant a preliminary injunction in July 2014 and a full trial … Continue reading
Judicial Watch Brings Out Big Guns in North Carolina Voting Challenge
Former DOJ voting section lawyers Robert Popper and Chris Coates are leading a team trying to intervene against DOJ in the North Carolina Voting Rights Act lawsuit. … Continue reading
“Challengers of new NC voting regulations want 2014 trial; state officials push for delay”
News & Observer: Parties who are a gulf apart over what laws should be in place to ensure fair and open elections are just as widely divided about how quickly a lawsuit challenging new voter laws should be heard in … Continue reading
“State of Texas moves to dismiss voter ID litigation”
Texas Redistricting sums it up. (motion) … Continue reading
AG Holder Speaks Out About Voting Rights
BLT: “This whole notion of voter fraud and the need to come up with photo ID to combat voter fraud is really a solution that’s in search of a problem,” Holder said today. Holder said there’s “no empirical evidence that … Continue reading
Fight in LA County Over Whether to Create Second Latino Sup. District; DOJ Uninterested
Bill Boyarsky explains. … Continue reading
“Eric Holder’s 2014 Racial Politics: The Attorney General tries to reverse a Supreme Court ruling by the back door.”
WSJ editorial. … Continue reading
“Eric Holder’s Big Voting-Rights Gamble”
Abby Rapoport writes for TAP. … Continue reading
“Hard Fight Seen for DOJ Against N.C. Voting Restrictions”
The National Law Journal reports. … Continue reading
Question About DOJ Complaint Against North Carolina
I’m wondering why the DOJ did not raise a constitutional claim in its complaint against both early voting and the wrong precinct provisional balloting issue. There were two important 6th circuit cases just before the 2012 elections coming out of … Continue reading
“Civil Rights Division Hit Hard in Justice Dept. Shutdown”
ColorLines reports. … Continue reading
“NC Republicans vow to fight US DOJ over voter laws”
AP reports. … Continue reading
“The Dishonesty of Voter ID Laws”
NYT editorial. … Continue reading
More North Carolina/DOJ Voting Rights Coverage
Charlotte Observer ABC News WaPo TPM NPR Buzzfeed MSNBC … Continue reading
Ari Berman on DOJ Suit Against North Carolina
Here. … Continue reading
Read DOJ’s Complaint Against North Carolina
Here. … Continue reading
“Justice Department Poised to File Lawsuit Over Voter ID Law”
NYT: The Justice Department is expected to sue North Carolina on Monday over its restrictive new voting law, further escalating the Obama administration’s efforts to restore a stronger federal role in protecting minority voters after the Supreme Court struck down … Continue reading
Speaking Oct. 24 and 25 in North Carolina on the Voting Wars and the Voting Rights Act
Details to come.
Want Some Background on North Carolina’s Tough Voting Law and How SCOTUS Opened the Door for It?
Read my Slate piece from August, Supreme Error: North Carolina’s Voter Suppression Law Shows Why the Voting Rights Act is Still Necessary. … Continue reading
“U.S. to sue North Carolina over new voter law”
AP reports. This is a big deal. More to come. … Continue reading
3-Judge Texas Court, on 2-1 Vote, Allows DOJ to Intervene in Texas Voting Rights Redistricting Suit
You can find the order and Judge Jerry Smith’s dissent at this link. There’s discussion in here of potential Texas bail-in under Section 3 of the VRA. … Continue reading
FEC Dispute over DOJ Cooperation Spills into Federal Court
Main Justice has this post. … Continue reading
Mississippi Democratic Party Asks DOJ to Observe Hattiesburg Mayoral Election
The AP reports here. … Continue reading
“Obama: ‘We’re Not Going To Wait For Congress’ To Act On Voting Rights Act”
Video from PBS News Hour interview. … Continue reading
“The Obama Administration vs. Texas”
Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune sits down with The Fix. … Continue reading
“U.S. v. Texas and the Strident Language of the Voting Rights Fight”
Andrew Cohen writes for The Atlantic. … Continue reading
“Obama’s Big Voting Rights Gamble”
David Nather reports for Politico. … Continue reading
“States, Justice Department girding for battle over voting laws”
McClatchy reports. … Continue reading