The U.S. Justice Department revealed on Friday that it is suing the state of Georgia over its new voting restrictions, Mother Jones reports. The move represents the first major action from the Justice Department to combat GOP voter suppression laws.
A source familiar with the litigation told Mother Jones that “the lawsuit is being overseen by Kristen Clarke, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Vanita Gupta, the associate attorney general—two longtime civil rights lawyers with extensive records litigating against new restrictions on voting.”
Gov. Brian Kemp has said “there is nothing Jim Crow” about the Georgia law, enacted in March, but it includes 16 different provisions that make it harder to vote and that target metro Atlanta counties with large Black populations.
However, noted Mother Jones, “the Georgia law appears to have been part of a coordinated national effort by conservative activists to make it harder to vote in states across the country. The dark money group Heritage Action for America bragged in a leaked video to donors in April, first reported by Mother Jones, that the Georgia law had ‘eight key provisions that Heritage recommended.’ Those included policies restricting mail ballot drop boxes, preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters, making it easier for partisan workers to monitor the polls, and restricting the ability of counties to accept donations from nonprofit groups seeking to aid in election administration.”
Don't Miss
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a speech earlier this month that he would “double the number of lawyers in the department’s voting section to scrutinize new laws making it harder to vote.” Still, litigation against new voter suppression laws faces an uphill battle against a conservative-dominated judiciary.
President Biden said he plans to speak out more aggressively about the need for federal action on voting rights after Republicans filibustered a debate on “For the People Act” on Tuesday.
