Battle to vote: civil rights are making a comeback on the DoJ – right here’s why | US voting rights

Happy Thursday

In the four years that Donald Trump was president, the Department of Justice (DoJ) has done little to enforce US voting laws – despite the fact that it is the federal agency that has the most power to do so. The electoral division of the department, well staffed with some of the best proxy attorneys in the country, was involved in almost no cases. And when they became embroiled in major cases in Texas and Ohio, the department decided to defend the election restrictions.

“It just seems like no one is home, which is tragic,” William Yeomans, a former DoJ official, told me in June.

That will change a lot.

Last month, Joe Biden named Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, two veteran civil rights attorneys, to senior positions in the Justice Department.

GuptaBiden, who previously headed the civil rights division, is Biden’s election as assistant attorney general, the division’s third officer.

Clarke is Biden’s choice to head the civil rights department and would be the first black woman to hold that role if confirmed. Over the past four years, she has been one of the most alarming people that the DoJ has not done enough to enforce the right to vote.

Reminder -> This judicial agency has not brought a SINGLE case under the electoral law, despite the era of widespread electoral repression we face across the country.

– Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) August 19, 2019

I am not aware of a single case of the Voting Rights Act filed by this government under AG Jeff Sessions.

Secy Wilbur Ross’s claim that a citizenship question is required in the 2020 Census to aid in enforcing the VRA is as false as it is ridiculous.https: //t.co/jcp5gGjFh7

– Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) March 29, 2018

New priorities

Civil rights activists and former department officials said this week they expected more aggressive enforcement of police and voting rights, among other things (as a sign of how quickly priorities are changing, the DoJ withdrew a case in Yale on Wednesday in which the policy of positive action was adopted questioned). Bryan Sells, a former Justice Department attorney, told me last week that there are likely a number of cases pending in the pipeline that could be almost ready to be filed.

“You will have someone in this office who really wants to make sure the department is using the powers it has to enforce proxy laws,” said Ezra Rosenberg, co-director of the proxy project at the lawyers. Committee.

Careful optimism

However, don’t expect a quick change and a new flurry of cases. The Justice Department carefully selects its cases, and unlike external civil rights groups who often file groundbreaking cases, the Justice Department is much more conservative. Justice Department attorneys are also facing a federal justice system much more conservative than it was four years ago after Donald Trump appointed an unprecedented number of judges. This could also have an impact on the calculation when selecting the cases to be brought. Much of the Voting Department’s work has traditionally been reviewing cases filed under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act – a provision gutted by the US Supreme Court in 2013.

Proponents, however, say it will be refreshing to have an ally again in the Justice Department.

“It will be very important and stimulating and exciting to be in conversation and discussion with people who understand the department’s role in enforcing civil rights,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “But it will also be exciting and resource-saving when the department actually takes over the enforcement of civil rights.”

Also worth seeing …

• I was impressed by a story in the Advocate that highlighted a library board member in Lafayette, Louisiana who turned down a $ 2,700 grant for proxy programming because some of the speakers were too far left. The board apparently wanted the library to find someone to present the other side of the problem.

• Thirty-one Florida counties agreed to provide Spanish language election materials, including ballot papers and legal proceedings as part of a federal settlement. In 2018, civil rights groups sued 32 counties in the state on the grounds that they violated a provision of the Voting Act that guarantees non-English speakers access to voting papers. The groups filed the lawsuit after a surge in Puerto Rican immigrants to Florida following Hurricane Maria. The only county that did not settle was Charlotte County in southwest Florida.

• Arkansas Republicans are pushing a move to remove part of the state voter ID bill that allows people to vote without ID when signing an affidavit. These affidavits are often included in voter identification laws to prevent individuals from becoming disenfranchised.

• The Missouri Republicans are also promoting a new voter identification measure, citing “questions” about the 2020 election.

• Wisconsin election officials are seeing the sky-high turnout carry over from last year’s elections to 2021 contests that are usually lesser-known. In the election, the Madison official said they had already sent 20,000 postal ballot papers.