The U.S. Senate voted 51-48 on May 25 to confirm Kristen Clarke to head the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division. She will lead a Civil Rights Division (CRD) of the DOJ that has become less a race-neutral enforcer of civil rights laws and more a government wing of progressive organizations. A bill currently before Congress would give that politicized division sweeping powers over North Carolina’s elections.
Christopher Coates, a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who served in the Voting Section in the Civil Rights Division, brought the discriminatory rift in the DOJ to light in 2010 testimony to Congress. While Coates worked on several cases enforcing the Voting Rights Act, he ran into resistance from within the DOJ on one case:
Texas GOP Enacts âRuthlessâ Voter Suppression, Sparking Calls For Federal Action Screenshot from Harris County Elections Instagram (@harrisvotes)
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
After reaching a deal less than a day earlier, overnight Sunday Texas state senators debated then passed along party lines a GOP voter suppression bill that was condemned by rights advocates and political figures across the United Statesâincluding President Joe Bidenâand has sparked calls for Congress to urgently combat Republican attacks on democracy. Today, Texas legislators put forth a bill that joins Georgia and Florida in advancing a state law that attacks the sacred right to vote, Biden saidSaturday. It s part of an assault on democracy that we ve seen far too often this yearâand often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans. It s wrong and un-American. In the 21st century, we should be making it easier, not harder, for every elig
Newspaper publisher Walter Hussman Jr. reportedly said he was concerned about the "controversy of tying the UNC journalism school to the 1619 project."