Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly threatening to come after states over voting laws, as they look to “review” state’s election reforms.
The DOJ is threatening to take legal action against the states who rolled back emergency election regulations put in place as a response to COVID-19.
“The right of all eligible citizens to vote is the central pillar of our democracy, and the Justice Department will use all of the authorities at its disposal to zealously guard that right,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“The guidances issued today describe certain federal laws that help ensure free, fair, and secure elections. Where violations of such laws occur, the Justice Department will not hesitate to act.”
The DOJ also released documents outlining the department’s view of post-2020 election reforms many states have put into place as well as ongoing election audits.
One of the documents warns states that reforms rolling back emergency measures adopted mid-pandemic may lead to a legal fight with the federal government.
“Since the 2020 election, some States have responded by permanently adopting their COVID-19 modifications; by contrast, other States have barred continued use of those practices or have imposed additional restrictions on voting by mail or early voting. In view of these developments, guidance concerning federal statutes affecting methods of voting is appropriate,” a document released by the DOJ begins.
“The Department’s enforcement policy does not consider a jurisdiction’s re-adoption of prior voting laws or procedures to be presumptively lawful; instead, the Department will review a jurisdiction’s changes in voting laws or procedures for compliance with all federal laws regarding elections, as the facts and circumstances warrant,” it continues.
It has been a hallmark of the Biden administration to go after GOP election reforms designed to make elections more secure following a highly controversial 2020 election.
President Joe Biden and other Democrats ignited a storm around Georgia’s election reforms by comparing the measures, designed to restore trust in the state’s election process, to racist “Jim Crow” laws.
The DOJ sued Georgia in June over its election reforms. Garland argued that the state’s voting reforms “were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
Democratic attacks on the state, condemned by the state’s GOP leaders, sparked corporate backlash against Georgia. Major League Baseball announced in April that it was boycotting Georgia over the election reforms, moving its All-Star game as well as the 2021 draft out of Atlanta.
Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state to Washington, D.C., on July 12 to break quorum during a special session in the Texas House and block election reform legislation supported by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
The Democratic lawmakers have stayed in Washington for weeks in protest of the Texas election reforms while advocating for a federal election overhaul that would concentrate authority over elections in the federal government.
“Texas Democrats’ decision to break a quorum of the Texas Legislature and abandon the Texas State Capitol inflicts harm on the very Texans who elected them to serve. As they fly across the country on cushy private planes, they leave undone issues that can help their districts and our state,” Abbott ripped the rogue lawmakers in a statement.
“The Democrats must put aside partisan political games and get back to the job they were elected to do. Their constituents must not be denied these important resources simply because their elected representative refused to show up to work.”
In another instance of Biden’s disturbingly politicized DOJ targeting a red state, Garland wrote a letter to Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott threatening legal action over the state’s newest executive order related to migrants.
Abbott signed an executive order this week restricting the flow of migrants into Texas due to COVID-19.
According to the governor’s website, Abbott signed the executive order “restricting ground transportation of migrants who pose a risk of carrying COVID-19 into Texas communities.” It also “directed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to stop any vehicle upon reasonable suspicion of such violation and reroute such vehicles back to its point of origin or a port of entry. DPS also has the authority to impound a vehicle that violates the Executive Order.”
In response, Attorney General Garland wrote his own letter to Abbott, saying that the order cannot be enforced, and pressed the governor to immediately take it back.
Garland wrote that the order “would jeopardize the health and safety of noncitizens in federal government custody, federal law enforcement personnel and their families, and our communities.”
He also stated that it “directly interferes with the implementation of federal immigration law.”
“Texas has no authority to interfere with the United States’ ‘broad, un-doubted power over the subject of immigration’ by impairing the United States’ release of individuals and the ability of those individuals to comply with federal immigration law,” Garland added.
Garland concluded his letter by saying that if Abbott does not rescind the order, he was providing notice that “the United States intends to pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Texas does not interfere with the functions of the federal government.”
Author: David Laurence
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