Posted on 10/25/2008 7:30:02 AM PDT by AJFavish
When the Supreme Court vacated the stay that had been issued in Ohio Republican Party v. Brunner last week, it did so based on the view that the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) does not authorize a lawsuit by a private party. The stay had ordered the Ohio Secretary of State to comply with the requirement in HAVA to verify the accuracy of the information provided on voter registration applications. The Supreme Court took some pains to make clear it was not disputing the district court and the Sixth Circuit’s en banc legal conclusion that Brunner was violating HAVA in her refusal to take reasonable steps to implement this provision.
I agree with the Supreme Court’s analysis — private citizens have no statutory right to enforce HAVA. In fact, only the Attorney General of the United States is authorized by Section 401 to bring a civil action to enforce the statute. Which, of course, brings up the question: where in the world is Attorney General Michael Mukasey (and Acting Assistant Attorney General of Civil Rights Grace Becker) and why is the Department of Justice and its Civil Rights Division sitting on their hands and doing absolutely nothing to enforce HAVA?
Two federal courts, including the applicable court of appeals, have stated specifically that the law is being violated by a state official. If the Justice Department believes the courts are wrong and the Secretary of State is correct, then it has an obligation to issue a statement explaining why it believes that is true. If the Justice Department agrees with the courts, then it has an even more compelling obligation to fulfill its enforcement duties and immediately file suit. Not a lot of work would be required other than to ask the federal district court to reissue its TRO ordering the Secretary of State to comply with the law – all of the evidentiary findings have already been made and approved by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Unless a majority of the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals change their minds on the law (which is pretty unlikely) we know how they would rule.
The complete silence of the Department is a sign of either utter incompetence or political cowardice or a combination of both. Only Mukasey and Becker know for sure.
http://blog.heritage.org/2008/10/24/where-in-the-world-is-michael-mukasey-continued/
Where in the World is Michael Mukasey? (continued)
Posted By Hans von Spakovsky On October 24, 2008 @ 4:13 pm In Rule of Law
[1] Update: I have just learned that there was a conference call today between DOJ personnel and Congressional staff. The Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, which is responsible for enforcing the Help America Vote Act, was asked whether the Division was planning to pursue the Ohio Secretary of State for her violation of the verification requirements of HAVA. Her answer (unbelievably) was that DOJ shouldn’t involve itself in election litigation just before an election.
This is an absolutely astonishing assertion by the no. 2 official in the Civil Rights Division. Perhaps she might care to explain, if that is really true, why the Division filed a lawsuit against Waller County, Texas, to remedy alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act on October 10? Or why her Division filed a lawsuit against the State of Vermont for allegedly violating the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act on October 14? Or why they filed an amicus brief on October 21 in Georgia in a lawsuit filed by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights trying to stop the Georgia Secretary of State’s compliance with HAVA’s verification requirement because she has supposedly not gotten approval from DOJ under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to implement a federal statute.
This answer is, of course, complete nonsense. In more than four decades of operation, the Civil Rights Division has never hesitated to file lawsuits to enforce federal voting rights laws that govern access to the polls and the administration of elections even on the very eve of Election Day. The Georgia case shows that the Division doesn’t think “involving itself in litigation just before an election” is a problem when they are trying to stop compliance with HAVA’s verification provision; they only seem to have a problem filing litigation to enforce compliance with this requirement, a requirement that the liberal establishment wants to see stricken from HAVA.
It would be outrageous for DOJ to not investigate and prosecute serious claims of voter intimidation because of an impending election. It is just as outrageous for DOJ to not prosecute Ohio’s failure to verify the accuracy and authenticity of voter registration information, which could lead to legitimate votes being diluted by fraudulent ballots. My previous question from my original post seems to have been answered.
“Where in the World is Michael Mukasey?” Like the rest of the Feds, picking lint out of his belly button.
NO ONE can save us.....It seems like NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE LAW ANYMORE!!! Our country is in deep peril because we have CORRUPT and CROOKED DEMOCRATS and SPINELESS REPUBLICANS!
it did so based on the view that the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) does not authorize a lawsuit by a private party.... Yet, I’m told that as a member of Society, I have to pay Social Security. I am NOT a private party.
George Bush getting revenge against the people who elected him.
We have a President that for 8 years has turned a blind eye to ongoing voter fraud with ACORN. Their only answer was to fire US Attorneys for not prosecuting the cases against ACORN which was handled horribly by Karl Rove a political operative. Then he tried to get US Attorneys on the job without going through Senate Confirmation. DOJ should have handled it when a US Attorney wouldn’t prosecute.
Ever since Ashcroft left DOJ, it has been worthless — look at the donations from DOJ to Obama versus McCain — huge difference.
Bush should have accepted every resignation of the US Attorneys and started over. Even at DOJ he left Clinton political appointees in place forever. He could have fired all of them that had become civil service and were still in their 90-day probation but he did nothing.
He did nothing with the trashing of the offices. This Administration will go down except for the 9/11 response as inept. Even then McCain had to convince the President that he needed to try the surge in Iraq. Putting a civilian in charge was dumb after we liberated Iraq.
The complete silence of the Department is a sign of either utter incompetence or political cowardice or a combination of both. Only Mukasey and Becker know for sure.
Missed; The most obvious and true reason. The Agency is populated with leftist bureaucrats in complete harmony with what is taking place in Ohio to negate the Republicans stealing another election.
This case should be turned over to the DOJ criminal division, not the civil rights division, and the President of the United States should get into the act, and right smartly.
Voter fraud is so rampant in this country it is sickening.
Why is this a surprise?
The biggest civil rights case in decades (in Durham, North Carolina), involving a “reverse Scottsboro” (replete with reverse KKK members), couldn’t get a whimper out of the Dept. of Justice.
But that same Dept. will rush into action if someone places a ham sandwich on a table where a muslim is sitting (in Vermont?)
The Dept. of Justice has priorities, and agendas; and no, it’s not about “Justice”, or enforcing the federal Constitution; it’s about not upsetting certain factions of the population, and keeping everyone calm.
Why is this a surprise?
Maybe surprise for those who thought the word Justice meant something, but none for a bureaucratic agency full of folks with another definition of the word, justice, and an agenda that eschews the word from the get go.
Bush long ago said “F-U” to the Conservatives and the GOP. It started with some of the incompentent baffoons he hired that could not defend him to save their lives to the “new tone” crap.
To say I am very disapointed with the Bush second term is an understatement.
The US Departmet of Justice sadly is just plain lame. They should have been on top of this six months ago. Today it’s too late. The bad guys have the fix in and the only hope we have is that the idiots don’t come out and vote.
This is horrible, but maybe to the point; I actually had to read the article before I was able to jog my memory on exactly “who” Michael Mukasey is.
More coffee!
Mukasey is too busy investigating Republicans to care about the Democrats.
I suspect he is a Democrat.
Was this before or after the Report that Bush ordered an investigation?
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