Today’s Must-Read: Emily Bazelon on the New DOJ: “Department of Justification”
With a nice section on voting rights, in the new NYT Magazine.
Category Archives: Department of Justice
“Justice Dept. Drops a Key Objection to a Texas Voter ID Law”
Manny Fernandez and Eric Licthblau in the NYT:
The Justice Department remains a party in the case. But it is pulling back at a crucial phase. If a judge finds the state acted with discriminatory intent, as the Justice Department… Continue reading
“Plaintiffs Oppose Texas & Justice Department Effort to Delay Hearing on Photo ID Law”
Release:
Groups and individuals suing Texas over its strict photo ID law filed a brief in U.S. District Court today in opposition to a joint request by the state and the United States Department of Justice, who asked to delay… Continue reading
Bauer on Sen. Sessions as AG Who Acts as Policy and Politics “Clearinghouse”
Post:
Mr. Bannon was responding to a question posed by the Washington Post and inspired, apparently, by the AG nominee’s part in fashioning President Trump’s policy agenda. Mr. Bannon is reported to have described Senator Sessions as “the clearinghouse for… Continue reading
“Trump’s Voting Investigation Is a Great Idea; As long as it looks like this.”
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for a “major investigation” into voter fraud. While his tweets announcing the call focus on the possibility of double voting and voter registration fraud, the… Continue reading
“Civil Rights Group Rebukes Trump Justice Dept. Over Case Delays”
NYT:
A leading civil rights group on Tuesday denounced the Trump administration’s delay of legal cases to overhaul the Baltimore Police Department and challenge a voter ID law in Texas — two lawsuits that were major efforts of the Obama-era… Continue reading
My Prediction on Voting Rights under Trump/Sessions
Here, at Slate’s set of predictions for the new administration.
Sen. Sessions Noncommittal on DOJ Position on Texas and North Carolina Voting Cases; Agrees to Enforce VRA Section 2
Written questions from Sen. Leahy and Sen. Sessions’ answer in connection with his nomination as AG:
21. You claim to be a champion of the Voting Rights Act because you voted for VRA’s reauthorization in 2006. But aside from this… Continue reading
It Begins: DOJ Asks for Extra Time in Texas Voter ID Case Because of Likely Change of Positions in Case
DOJ has filed this request for a one month extension of a hearing in the trial court hearing the latest round in the Texas voter id case. The motion, which is opposed by the private plaintiffs in the case but… Continue reading
“What happens now to Justice Dept.’s civil rights enforcement?”
WaPo:
We spoke with Gupta on Wednesday morning, the last day in her fifth-floor Justice Department office, where pictures of Robert F. Kennedy and Frederick Douglass hung over her desk. The conversation started with the fight to protect voting rights,… Continue reading
Incoming DOJ Deputy Assistant AG for Civil Rights Worked Defending Redistricting Plans
David Lat lists a number of Jones Day lawyers going to work for the Trump administration. Among those listed is attorney John M. Gore to be the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights in the DOJ.
According to Gore’s… Continue reading
“Under Trump, Approach to Civil Rights Law Is Likely to Change Definitively”
NYT:
Few areas of federal policy are likely to change so definitively. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, opposes not only the Justice Department’s specific policies on civil rights but its entire… Continue reading
“Justice Dept. Seeks to Join Suit Over 117,000 Purged Brooklyn Voters”
NYT:
The Justice Department announced on Thursday that it had filed a motion to join a lawsuit against the New York City Board of Elections, alleging that the board’s Brooklyn office violated federal voter registration law by erasing more than … Continue reading