Holder seeks to reassert federal power over state voting laws

[Geee]

The Hill:

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday said he will seek to require that the state of Texas clear all of its voting changes with the federal government, firing the opening salvo in a new battle over the Voting Rights Act.

 

"This is the department’s first action to protect voting rights following the Shelby County decision, but it will not be our last," Holder said in Philadelphia, according to prepared remarks.

 

The Supreme Court last month ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that the voting law's requirement that states with a history of discrimination clear changes to their polling practices was unconstitutional, putting enforcement of the law in doubt.

 

But Holder, in a speech on Thursday at the National Urban League, said the Obama administration will try to revive the preclearance system in court.

"Today I am announcing that the Justice Department will ask a federal court in Texas to subject the State of Texas to a preclearance regime similar to the one required by Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act," Holder said.

[Draggingtree]

Statement by Gov. Rick Perry on Protecting Texas’ Voter Integrity Laws

Thursday, July 25, 2013 • Austin, Texas • Press Release

Gov. Rick Perry today issued the following statement in response to efforts by the Obama Administration to weaken Texas' voter integrity laws:

"Once again, the Obama Administration is demonstrating utter contempt for our country's system of checks and balances, not to mention the U.S. Constitution. This end-run around the Supreme Court undermines the will of the people of Texas, and casts unfair aspersions on our state's common-sense efforts to preserve the integrity of our elections process." Snip http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/18769/

[Draggingtree]

Justice Department to challenge states’ voting rights laws

 

By Sari Horwitz, Updated: Thursday, July 25, 12:25 PM

 

The Justice Department is preparing to take fresh legal action in a string of voting rights cases across the nation, U.S. officials said, part of a new attempt to blunt the impact of a Supreme Court ruling that the Obama administration has warned will imperil minority representation.

 

The decision to challenge state officials marks an aggressive effort to continue policing voting rights issues and follows a ruling by the court last month

 

Holder announced that, in a first step, the department will support a lawsuit in Texas that was brought by a coalition of Democratic legislators and civil rights groups against the state’s redistricting plan.

 

Holder said he is asking a federal judge to require Texas to submit all voting law changes to the Justice Department for approval for a 10-year period because of its history of discrimination.

 

“It’s a pretty clear sign that a lawsuit against the Texas voter-ID law is also on the way,”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-to-challenge-states-voting-rights-laws/2013/07/25/c26740b2-f49b-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html

[Valin]

Statement by Gov. Rick Perry on Protecting Texas’ Voter Integrity Laws

Thursday, July 25, 2013 • Austin, Texas • Press Release

Gov. Rick Perry today issued the following statement in response to efforts by the Obama Administration to weaken Texas' voter integrity laws:

"Once again, the Obama Administration is demonstrating utter contempt for our country's system of checks and balances, not to mention the U.S. Constitution. This end-run around the Supreme Court undermines the will of the people of Texas, and casts unfair aspersions on our state's common-sense efforts to preserve the integrity of our elections process." Snip http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/18769/

 

I could have said the same thing in two words...seven letters.

[Draggingtree]

July 25th, 2013 The DOJ/Obama war against the states

The Southern states, that is. Or any other state that has the temerity to tighten up its own voting regulations in ways that would appear to make perfect sense.

 

A mere month ago, in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that Obama and the DOJ didn’t like when the Court struck down the part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that was used to identify which states were covered by that law. The president, Holder, and other Democrats have already voiced their dissatisfaction with that ruling, and now we have the administration’s tactical response:

 

There’s this action by the DOJ as well, directed for the moment at Texas but almost certainly, if successful, to be aimed at other states trying to implement similar rules (and maybe even if not successful, in order to harass them anyway and rev up the liberal/left base):

 

Well, of course. Did anyone really think Obama and Holder would merely swallow the will of the Supreme Court, when they could get creative?

 

Will Obama/Holder win this battle? Ed Morrissey of Hot Air has his doubts:

Holder’s problem here, though, is that it’s the pre-clearance criteria in Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down as irrational and outdated.

http://neoneocon.com/2013/07/25/the-dojobama-war-against-the-states/

[Valin]

Trayvon, Texas, and Voter ID

Jonathan S. Tobin

7/25/13

 

Attorney General Eric Holder never uttered the words Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman in his remarks today at the convention of the Urban League in Philadelphia. But his address, in which he vowed to impose preclearance procedures on the state of Texas in order to prevent it from making any changes in voting procedures without the express permission of the Department of Justice, must be viewed in the context of a liberal drive to take advantage of the conversation on race that so many on the left have urged upon the country in the aftermath of the verdict in the Zimmerman trial. Holders actions are primarily a response to the Supreme Courts decision to reaffirm the Voting Rights Act while mandating that Congress redraw the map that determines which jurisdictions must get advance permission from the DOJ without the latter having to go to court first, rather than merely going by the outdated one drawn up in 1965. But theres little doubt that Holder and the left are hoping the hysteria that race merchants like Al Sharpton have helped stir up in the last two weeks will help them turn public opinion on the question of voter ID laws that are at the heart of the federal attack on Texas.

 

(Snip)

 

The attorney generals decision to go to court against Texas gives the lie to much of the fulminations from the administration about the decision in Shelby v. Holder. Far from easing the way toward a new era of Jim Crow, the court reaffirmed the Voting Rights Acts safeguards against discrimination but merely said that the DOJ could not preempt the judicial process without a necessary re-write of the act based on the realities of contemporary America rather than one based on the situation in 1965. Thus, Holder is perfectly free to sue in federal court to stop Texas from doing anything he deems discriminatory.

 

(Snip)

 

In an era when it has become easier to register, including at the polls on election days and where mail-in and absentee ballots have become commonplace, voter fraud has become easier, necessitating measures to ensure the integrity of results. The vast majority of Americans, including African-Americans, believe there is nothing wrong, let alone discriminatory, about asking voters to identify themselves in the same manner that they must to conduct virtually any other transaction with the government or business. Voter ID laws are a commonsense measure that are as easy to comply with as it is to register to vote. But liberals and race baiters have sought to make them the lever by which they can convince the country that racism is alive and well.

 

(Snip)

 

 

BTW Jim Crow is alive and America is racist, because Felons can't vote in Fla....or something

[Draggingtree]

The Lone Star State Has a Message for Eric Holder: “Don’t Mess With Texas”

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Tim Brown

Earlier in the week I told you that Attorney General Eric Holder would be calling on a court to require the state of Texas to get permission from the federal government before they make any voting changes for the next decade, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling against his request. Well Texas isn’t taking it lying down. A group of Texas Republicans have warned the Obama administration not to mess with Texas, including Governor Rick Perry. http://dcclothesline.com/2013/07/28/the-lone-star-state-has-a-message-for-eric-holder-dont-mess-with-texas/#more-14109