SMRs and AMRs

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Holder Speech to Fault New Restrictions in Voting Laws

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
NYT

AUSTIN, Tex. — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to enter the turbulent political waters of voting rights on Tuesday, signaling that the Justice Department will take an aggressive stance in reviewing new laws in several states that civil rights advocates say are meant to dampen minority participation in the national elections next year.

The speech could inflame a smoldering partisan dispute over race and ballot access just as the 2012 campaign cycle intensifies.

Mr. Holder is to speak Tuesday evening here at the presidential library of Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The act enables the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to object to election laws and practices on the grounds that they would disproportionately deter minority groups from voting, and to go to court to block states from implementing them.

A draft of Mr. Holder’s speech urges Americans to “call on our political parties to resist the temptation to suppress certain votes in the hope of attaining electoral success and, instead, achieve success by appealing to more voters.”

(More here.)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home