Holder’s speech followed a private meeting he held recently where civil rights leaders expressed a growing impatience with the Justice Department’s failure to act against the new laws, especially those in states that don’t require prior clearance from the department or the courts, according to sources who participated in the sessions.
“We were very concerned about the lack of enforcement from the Department of Justice,” said Barbara Arnwine of The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “We have expected more from them in terms of voting rights. … We reviewed how many cases civil rights groups were bringing versus the number of cases brought by DOJ.”
Asked about the message delivered to the attorney general, Arnwine said: “It was that they were not doing enough. … We said that this was his watch.”