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The Justice Department on Wednesday sided with challengers of voting laws in Wisconsin and Ohio, saying in court filings that measures in those states unfairly affect minority voters. The department criticized a Wisconsin law that requires voters to present photo identification at the polls and an Ohio law that limits when voters can cast an early ballot. The court papers from the federal government are aimed at persuading judges that the laws, which are being challenged in court, are discriminatory and block access to the ballot box. […] The Justice Department has warned of legal actions against states after the...

WASHINGTON — A key GOP lawmakers said Thursday that he’s in no hurry to restore Justice Department scrutiny to Texas and other states under the Voting Rights Act. A year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key part of that landmark civil rights law — the formula that identified nine states and some smaller jurisdictions with such an egregious history of violating the rights of voters that they would have to get federal permission before moving a polling site, shifting district boundaries or making any other election-related change. “There is a great deal of dispute in many quarters...

The head of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is pushing House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to take up legislation restoring the voting rights protections shot down by the Supreme Court last year. Democratic leaders and others urging consideration of the bipartisan bill to update the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) have previously focused their pressure campaign on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). But with Boehner showing little interest and Cantor soon to exit leadership after last week's primary loss, CBC Chairwoman Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) switched gears Wednesday and turned the pressure directly on...

Sipping a hot cup of unsweetened green tea at 3am, I felt compelled to revisit Dr Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the internet. These excerpts leaped out at me. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have...

If the state provides free IDs, is there really an “unjustified burden” on poor voters?To better understand the contrast between an activist, liberal judge who refuses to follow the law and a judge who understands that his job is to follow precedent and the Constitution, consider two recent federal cases on voter-ID laws. On Tuesday, federal-district-court judge Lynn Adelman — a Clinton appointee, former Democratic state senator, and former Legal Aid Society lawyer — held that Wisconsin’s voter-ID requirement violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, because it places “an unjustified burden on...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus filed a lawsuit Monday against the state of Georgia seeking to dissolve the city charters of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Milton and Chattahoochee Hills. Further, the lawmakers, joined by civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery, aim to dash any hopes of a Milton County. The lawsuit, filed in a North Georgia U.S. District Court Monday, claims that the state circumvented the normal legislative process and set aside its own criteria when creating the “super-majority white ” cities within Fulton and DeKalb counties. The result, it argues, is to dilute...

Wisconsin Republican seeks to restore racial categories, empower Holder DOJ Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R., Wisc.) told constituents at Wisconsin town halls that voting-rights legislation he is sponsoring does not exclude white voters from the protection of the Voting Rights Act. Sensenbrenner also says he is proud to work with the ACLU and far-left groups to pass the legislation that would resurrect Attorney General Eric Holder’s powers to block state election laws such as voter ID or citizenship verification. In a video from Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, Sensenbrenner also accused Texas and Georgia Republicans of trying to stop minorities from...

The bill also includes a sweetener for Virginians. Under the old provisions shot down by the Supreme Court, the Old Dominion was one of nine states with histories of voter discrimination required to get federal approval before they changed their election procedures. Under the new proposal – which aims to update the formula dictating which states are subject to the extra scrutiny – only four states would be forced to seek such approval. Virginia is not among them. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), a long-time voting rights champion and a lead sponsor of the updated protections, noted Thursday that Rep. Spencer...

Only seven months after the Supreme Court shattered the Voting Rights Act, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has come up with a bill that would go a long way toward putting it back together. If they can persuade Republicans in Congress to set aside partisanship and allow it to pass, they would begin to restore justice to a deeply damaged electoral process. It would be an ideal way to observe the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this week. The bill is far from perfect. In particular, it does not give enough weight to the discriminatory effect of voter ID...

A federal commission rejected three states’ requests to ask voters for proof of citizenship, issuing a complex decision Friday that said it’s up to the national government, not the states, to decide what to include on registration forms. Under the motor-voter law, federal officials distribute voter-registration forms in all of the states. Arizona, Kansas and Georgia all asked that those forms request proof of citizenship, but the federal Election Assistance Commission rejected that in a 46-page ruling. The EAC said states can check driver’s license databases or ask federal immigration authorities for information, but they cannot tell the federal government...

Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner (WI) this week announced his intention to pass a bill “reforming” the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act last year. As Christian Adams reported, Sensenbrenner’s bill would “radically expand federal power over state elections. It would give Attorney General Eric Holder expansive new federal powers over state elections, including the ability to barge into polling places to monitor the use of foreign language election materials. It would also give Holder the power to block election integrity measures like Voter ID and citizenship verification.” Holder has earned...

Key lawmakers announced a rewrite of the Voting Rights Act on Thursday, creating a test to judge which states are still so discriminatory that they need federal scrutiny of their voting decisions — moving to revive the iconic law just months after the Supreme Court declared part of it unconstitutional. In their June decision, the justices said Congress couldn’t use discrimination from four decades ago to single out states for special federal scrutiny, so the proposal would update the test to look at recent federal court rulings that found a state or municipality violated voting laws. ~snip~ Hans A. von...

After the Court's Shelby decision, dozens of DOJ lawyers have nothing to do. But not one has been laid off. Hans von Spakovsky has the inside scoop of the new omnibus spending bill. Most notably, the new bill funds the government jobs of dozens Department of Justice employees who no longer have any work to do after the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. Von Spakovsky writes: Of course, the other thing needed with the Civil Rights Division is a cutback in its budget, which has grown considerably, and gives Eric Holder the resources to...

Politics: Defying the Supreme Court, the administration is suing North Carolina for requiring valid ID at the polls, a rule that President Obama had no problem complying with in his home state. North Carolina is the first state to make changes to its voting laws after June's Supreme Court ruling making it harder for the Justice Department to block such changes under the outdated Voting Rights Act of 1965. Raleigh's new GOP majority passed a common-sense law making all voters show a state driver's license or other valid ID to guard against fraudulent ballots. The law will help stop noncitizens...

Judicial Watch is mobilizing resources for the fight over election integrity — the organization has just announced the hiring of former Department of Justice Voting Section Deputy Chief Robert Popper. This is very bad news for vote fraudsters, vote deniers, and organizations (including Eric Holder’s Justice Department) that stand in the way of election integrity. Popper worked with me on the New Black Panther case at the Justice Department. This means that three of the four lawyers who worked on that case have left DOJ, and are now on the side of preventing lawlessness in voting rather than aiding and...

Voting Rights: While the Department of Justice sues Texas over its Voter ID law, analysis of Georgia's 2008 statute shows turnout increased among all groups, including blacks and Hispanics. Jim Crow, call your office. When on June 25 the U.S. Supreme Court freed southern states from the most onerous part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, ruling that continuing certain requirements could not be justifiably based on past voter suppression but could be justified only if current discrimination against minorities could be proved, the decision did not sit well with Eric Holder's Department of Justice. In August, DOJ's civil rights...

PJ Media has engaged in a long-running series of articles regarding Republicans who are trying to re-impose the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was partially struck down by the US Supreme Court this summer. We reported that staff within the Republican National Committee are working to re-impose it, outside the public eye. The RNC officially and vehemently denied. But. We’ve also tracked the statements of elected Republicans including Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, and the activities of their lobbyists and staffs. Sensenbrenner is under the influence of a long-time former staffer who is currently lobbying for the far-left ACLU. Juan Williams, Democrat...

Earlier today, J. Christian Adams reported comments made by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) regarding the Voting Rights Act. Sharing the podium with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Sensenbrenner told a Washington audience Monday that he wants to “fix” the part of the law that the Supreme Court recently struck down. Sensenbrenner said he wants to fix the law so that it is immune to court challenges. “The first thing we have to do is take the monkey wrench that the court threw in it, out of the Voting Rights Act, and then use that monkey wrench to be able...

Justice Ruth Ginsburg said she has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court and suggested she could continue her work after President Obama’s term. In an interview published Sunday by The New York Times, Ginsburg said she was in good health after surviving two bouts with cancer. She said she intended to keep working “as long as I can do the job full steam.” She also said she was hopeful the president after Obama “will be a fine president,” a statement that could indicate the end of Obama’s term is not a factor in her plans. Ginsburg, 80, is...

The setback from the Supreme Court’s decision striking down elements of the Voting Rights Act is bad, but not as daunting hurdles from past generations, President Barack Obama told a White House gathering of civil rights leaders Monday.  “He said, ‘When you think about it, this is small-bore stuff compared to lynching and shootings and killings that happened 50 years ago,’” one participant in the meeting told POLITICO. “He said, ‘Ultimately this is within our power to change.’” Obama told the group of about 15 civil rights leaders that it will be incumbent upon alert the Justice Department flag violations...