The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the federal lawsuit against the State of Georgia. The Department of Justice announced on Friday that it had filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia, the Georgia Secretary of State, and the Georgia State Election Board to stop racially discriminatory provisions of the Georgia Senate Bill 202. The DOJ is challenging the provisions of the Bill under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland made the following statement.
The right of all eligible citizens to vote
is the central pillar of our democracy, the right from which all other rights
ultimately flow. This lawsuit is the first step of many we are taking to ensure
that all eligible voters can cast a vote; that all lawful votes are counted;
and that every voter has access to accurate information.
The right to vote is one of the most
central rights in our democracy and protecting the right to vote for all
Americans is t the core of the Civil Rights Division’s mission. The Department
of Justice will use all the tools it has available to ensure that each eligible
citizen can register, cast a ballot, and have that ballot counted free form
racial discrimination. Law adopted with a racially motivated purpose, like
Georgia Senate Bill 202, simple have no place in democracy today.
One of the fundamental rights of our
democracy is the right to vote. That right should be protected for every
citizen of our district, regardless of
No one argues that every citizen has
a right to vote without regard to race, ethnicity, religious, sex, or any
number of reasons. However, the Georgia law merely requires that voters prove
that they are who they say that they are. The law has nothing to do with race,
and it is supported more by the people of color than it is by white people. However,
it has been subject to dishonest attacks from both the mainstream media and
Democrats and has been compared to laws known as “Jim Crow.” It appears that
the DOJ does not approve of the requirement to ask for identification before
being allowed to vote. Its claims parrot claims from Democrats about the law
abridging the voting rights of black people.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R)
signed the bill into law, and he pushed back against the claims made by the
DOJ:
This lawsuit is born out of the lies and
misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity
Act from the start. Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and their allies tried to force
an unconstitutional elections power grab through Congress – and failed. Now,
they are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left
agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government
overreach in our democracy.
Liberal Professor Jonathan Turley of
the George Washington University Law School believes that the DOJ’s decision to
sue Georgia over the new voting law will backfire on the Biden administration
and Democrats. When interviewed on “Fox and Friends,” he predicted that the
Biden administration “may ultimately regret” the lawsuit.
I’m highly skeptical and I think they may
ultimately regret this move. It could indeed clarify this issue in a way the
Biden administration does not want. This is a very dubious case in my view
because the Georgia law has great overlap with other states, like Delaware.
One of the issues that the court may
ultimately amplify is that elections were left in the Constitution to the
state. Alexander Hamilton actually wrote in the federalist papers imagine if
the federal government was to take over the management of elections and he
basically said we would all object. Well, that’s what’s happening now in
Congress they are trying to essentially federalize elections and I think they
are going to have a serious pushback on this lawsuit.
What does the Constitution say about elections? “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and
Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof;
but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except
as to the Places of chusing Senators” (Article I, Section 4, Clause 1). I agree
with Turley. The DOJ may be regretting this lawsuit because the States are
going to push back hard.
No comments:
Post a Comment