Civil & Human Rights

AG Holder to seek ‘bail-in’ of Texas under Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The New York Times reports today, Holder
Wants Texas to Clear Voting Changes With the U.S.:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced on Thursday that the Justice Department would ask a court to require Texas to get permission from the federal government before making voting changes in that state. The move opens a new chapter in the political struggle over election rules after the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act last month.

In a speech
before the National Urban League in Philadelphia, Mr. Holder also
indicated that the filing, expected later on Thursday, was most likely
just an opening salvo in a new Obama administration strategy to try to
reimpose “preclearance” requirements in parts of the country that have a
history of discriminating against minority voters.

* * *

“This is the department’s first action to protect voting rights
following the Shelby County decision, but it will not be our last,” Mr.
Holder said. “Even as Congress considers updates to the Voting Rights
Act in light of the court’s ruling, we plan, in the meantime, to fully
utilize the law’s remaining sections to subject states to preclearance
as necessary. My colleagues and I are determined to use every tool at
our disposal to stand against such discrimination wherever it is found.”

(Update) Voter ID on trial in Pennsylvania

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This trial was originally scheduled for nine days, but it looks as if we are going into extra innings.

The eighth day of trial on Pennsylvania's voter-identification law ended
in disarray Wednesday as plaintiffs' attorneys contesting the law's
constitutionality refused to rest their case until they learn more about
potential problems in issuing mandatory photo ID cards. Pa. voter ID trial recesses in disarray:

Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley expressed impatience at the slow pace of the trial and cleared the courtroom briefly to huddle with lawyers from both sides, but court recessed for the day with little sign of a compromise. The state did, however, present some testimony in defense of the law.

Questions for Martha McSally: What is your position on comprehensive immigration reform?

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In this new series, "Questions for Martha McSally," we pose questions to
the McSally campaign about her positions on current hot topics — I am
not going to give her a free pass until after the GOP primary like our local media did in 2012.

Preface: The "Gang of Eight" in the U.S. Senate, which includes Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, crafted a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the U.S. Senate on a super-majority vote of 68-32, with 14 Republicans including Arizona's seantors voting in favor.

The "Gang of Eight" bill includes a "border surge" amendment from Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) that throws $30 billion in spending over a 10-year period at border security which would produce a financial windfall to some of America's
largest aerospace, technology and security companies, and to
border states. Sen. Corker conceded that his "border surge" is "almost overkill."

GOP rebranding fail on immigration: Rep. Steve King

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

House GOP leaders have embraced something called the "KIDS Act,"
which is basically a scaled down Republican version of the DREAM Act. It is a cynical attempt by Weeper of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor to offer something to soften the political impact to the GOP if Boehner allows the radical Tea-Publicans in the House to kill comprehensive immigration reform.

Let's  be clear: the fate of comprehensive immigration reform rests squarely in Boehner's hands and whether he will allow a comprehensive immigration reform bill to go to the House floor for a vote.

Former GOP Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott tells the Philadelphia Inquirer today that he’d
bring the Senate immigration bill up for a floor vote in the House,
even though a majority of fellow Republicans oppose the idea. Lott says he'd allow a House immigration vote. “If you don’t have the majority of your conference that you’re leading, and you do that too much, you won’t be the leader very long,” Lott said. “As for myself, I would do it even if it meant losing my job,” he added.

GOP voter suppression in North Carolina

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Hey, Chief Justice Roberts. Yeah I'm talking to you. Does this look like race-based GOP voter suppression — the Southern strategy — is a thing of the past to you? Ed Kilgore writes at the Political Animal blog, Supreme Court Decisions Have Consequences:

So do you think the Supreme Court decision
largely invalidating the preclearance requirement imposed by Section 5
of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was no big deal, since southern
discrimination is largely a thing of the past and other
anti-discrimination measures are available?

Check out what the North Carolina legislature is about to do, per this depressing report from The Nation’s Ari Berman:

This week, the North Carolina legislature will almost
certainly pass a strict new voter ID law that could disenfranchise
318,000 registered voters who don’t have the narrow forms of accepted
state-issued ID. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the bill has since been
amended by Republicans to include a slew of appalling voter suppression
measures. They include cutting a week of early voting, ending same-day
registration during the early voting period and making it easier for
vigilante poll-watchers to challenge eligible voters. The bill is being
debated this afternoon in the Senate Rules Committee.