Justin nicely summarizes the heart of the DOJ’s HAVA complaint against North Carolina. I just wanted to highlight one other detail: the private right of action.

Back in October, I noted that a federal court in North Carolina held there was no private right of action to enforce this particular provision of HAVA. A lack of a private right of action, however, means that private litigants must rely on public enforcement. That’s exactly what’s happening here. If private plaintiffs can’t bring the claim, the burden is on the Department of Justice to do so–and here, it is doing so.

Now, a similar point could be made with respect to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, but that is a matter for another day.