I am so glad to read this this morning.
Justice Department to challenge states’ voting rights laws
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Since the Supreme Court trashed Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act many states have been trying to enact hard voting ID laws.
But here comes the Justice Department.
Justice Department to challenge states’ voting rights laws
By Sari Horwitz, E-mail the writers
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.
What the Justice Department will do is use Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act
In the coming weeks, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to announce that the Justice Department is using other sections of the Voting Rights Act to bring lawsuits or take other legal action to prevent states from implementing certain laws, including requirements to present certain kinds of identification in order to vote. The department is also expected to try and force certain states to get approval, or “pre-clearance,” before they can change their election laws.
The Justice Department will do this even if Congress does something about the Voting Rights Act.
“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 pre-clearance as necessary,” Holder planned to say in a speech Thursday morning in Philadelphia, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “My colleagues and I are determined to use every tool at our disposal to stand against such discrimination wherever it is found.”