“Justice’s Voting Rights Unit Suffers ‘Deep Ideological Polarization’ Says Watchdog”
I missed this NPR report from last week.
Category Archives: Department of Justice
“The Voting Wars Within: Is the Department of Justice too biased to enforce the Voting Rights Act?”
I have written this commentary for Slate. It begins:
A long-awaited report from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General issued last week sheds considerable light on the battles within the department’s voting section during the Bush and… Continue reading
“Thomas Perez May Not Deserve to Be Secretary of Labor, but He Deserves More Than This”
“Lawmakers Dispute Report’s Meaning for Perez”
Josh Gerstein explores whether the IG report on the DOJ voting section will affect Tom Perez’s expected nomination to be Secretary of Labor.
Did IG Conclude Obama DOJ a “Far Better Steward” of Voting Rights Section than Bush DOJ?
That’s Adam Serwer’s reading of the report, but not mine. (The issue is not whether Obama DOJ in fact was a better steward, but rather what did the IG conclude.)
Update: Adam Serwer clarifies that this is his opinion… Continue reading
“Internal Report Blasts DOJ Civil Rights Unit”
Josh Gerstein does a great job describing key points in the IG report.
Breaking: DOJ OIG Releases Report on Voting Section Controversies
You can now read A Review of the Operations of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division put out by the DOJ Office of the Inspector General. I will provide more comments when I’ve had a chance to… Continue reading
“Would GOP Filibuster Perez Too?”
Quote of the Day
“He’ll be a controversial nominee.”
—An unnamed Democratic strategist, quoted by the LA Times on the nomination of Tom Perez to be labor secretary.
Judging from this Powerline post, there could well be complaints from the right.
“Obama Choice for Labor Secretary Said to Be Justice’s Perez”
Bloomberg: “President Barack Obama is close to choosing Thomas Perez, currently the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, to be labor secretary, according to two people familiar with the matter.”
“The Demise of Section 5? It’s become a politicized weapon wielded by the Justice Department.”
John Fund at National Review.
Interesting DOJ/FEC Split in Danielczyk Case Raises Tricky Question for Election Lawyers
See this post at Inside Political Law.
“Supreme Court Voting Rights Act Case: DOJ’s Tom Perez Calls Section 5 ‘Regrettably’ Necessary”
HuffPo’s Ryan J. Reilly sits down with Tom Perez and asks him if DOJ is making contingency plans if Section 5 is struck down.