Free Republic

Linked is the full opinion written by pdf Justice Hugh Thompson. A defeat for Common Cause and the NAACP. And so ends years of nasty contentious fighting. All the arguments and posturing became as simple as this - from the opinion: "Nor do we find the photo ID requirement to be an impermissible qualification on voting. The 2006 Act does not deprive any Georgia voter from casting a ballot in any election. A registered voter who does not possess a photo ID and who desires to vote in person can obtain a free photo ID at one or more...

President Obama and Harry Reid have used their appointment powers to stop the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' investigation into the New Black Panther Party voter-intimidation case. (Don't miss James Poulos' PJTV interview with von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams from CPAC.) For a while, at least, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was investigating the Justice Department’s race-based decision to dismiss the New Black Panther Party voter-intimidation case — a case DOJ had effectively won. But now President Obama and Harry Reid have used their appointment powers to stop the investigation. Never mind the incontrovertible (and mounting) evidence that...

SAN FRANCISCO — What is the quietest spot in Washington, D.C.? The Rose Garden? The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier? Actually, it’s the Justice Department’s Voting Section. Justice’s unit that allegedly fights disenfranchisement lately has been caught dozing while at least nine states too slowly deliver absentee ballots to overseas GIs. Too many military votes thus may go uncounted in November. In yet another outrage, the Voting Section is static while the rolls of at least 16 states evidently list ineligible voters, including non-residents, disqualified felons, and – yes – dead people. Justice’s response? “ZZZZZZzzzzzz......” Even worse, the Big Sleep...

Abigail Thernstrom, vice chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, has written what Pete Kirsanow aptly described as a "bewildering" response to my column of a week earlier. I had taken issue with Thernstrom's absurd claim that the Justice Department's dismissal of the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case is "small potatoes." I haven't gotten around to replying yet, but Pete (Thernstrom's fellow commmissioner) and former Justice Department official Hans von Spakovsky (Thernstrom's friend) have both demolished Thernstrom's response.There remain a few more things to say, but for now, I have a pressing question for Dr. Thernstrom: Are you serious?In her NRO...

Almost a month ago, I published a piece in NRO titled “The New Black Panther Case: A Conservative Dissent.” The main thrust of the article — now forgotten by everyone, it seems — was that the Obama Justice Department’s enforcement of the Voting Rights Act was deeply troubling. I am no fan of Attorney General Eric Holder’s policies, and the voting section had just proposed important new regulations interpreting the statute that will likely result in the widespread racial gerrymandering of legislative districts following the 2010 census. The revised regulations will deeply affect the landscape of American politics for the...

Accusations that the Voting Section of the Department of Justice is poisoned by politics are not new and neither are its loudest critics.  In the fall of 2007, those declaring that the George W. Bush Administration used the Voting Section to achieve a political purpose got their day in “court.”  On October 30, 2007, former Voting Section Chief John Tanner testified to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.  He was called to testify following his decision to pre-clear a law in Georgia requiring that voters present photo identification at the polls.[1]  He stated that...