The
Justice
Department’s
hamfisted
effort
to
seize
control
of
state
voter
rolls
got
slapped
down
hard
this
week.
Twice.
The
DOJ’s
Civil
Rights
Division
demanded
extensive
voter
data
and
sued
23
states,
along
with
the
District
of
Columbia,
for
refusing
to
hand
it
over.
The
government’s
theory
is
that
allowing
ineligible
voters
to
cast
ballots
disenfranchises
eligible
voters
by
diluting
the
value
of
their
ballots.
And
the
only
solution
to
this
nonexistent
problem
is
for
states
to
hand
over
their
complete
voter
rolls,
let
the
federal
government
scrutinize
the
data,
and
tell
them
which
voters
to
delete.
Citing
state
privacy
laws,
most
states
agreed
to
provide
redacted
lists
only,
withholding
drivers
license
and
social
security
numbers.
But
this
was
insufficient
for
the
DOJ,
which
plans
to
build
a
nationwide
database
maintained
by
the
federal
government.
The
lawsuits
cite
the
National
Voter
Registration
Act,
which
orders
states
to
make
“a
reasonable
effort
to
remove
the
names
of
ineligible
voters
from
the
official
lists
of
eligible
voters”
and
“make
available
for
public
inspection
…
all
records
concerning
the
implementation
of
programs
conducted
for
the
purpose
of
ensuring
the
accuracy
and
currency
of
official
lists
of
eligible
voters.”
The
feds
read
this
as
requiring
disclosure
of
“the
current
electronic
copy
of
California’s
computerized
statewide
voter
registration
list,”
including
“all
fields
contained
within
the
list.”
Secondarily,
the
feds
rely
on
the
Civil
Rights
Act
of
1960
—
not
1964
—
in
which
Congress
ordered
registrars
to
keep
“all
records
and
papers
which
come
into
[their]
possession
relating
to
any
application,
registration,
payment
of
poll
tax,
or
other
act
requisite
to
voting”
and
make
them
available
for
“inspection,
reproduction,
and
copying”
by
the
Attorney
General
upon
presentation
of
a
demand
stating
the
basis
for
the
request.
Using
a
law
specifically
designed
to
stop
states
from
disenfranchising
Black
citizens
to
carry
out
a
nationwide
voter
purge
might
make
some
lawyers
a
bit
queasy.
But
not
Harmeet
Dhillon!
The
president’s
former
personal
attorney
is
currently
suing
multiple
states
for
“violating”
Title
IX
by
letting
trans
girls
play
sports.
Dhillon
actually
told
the
Wall
Street
Journal
that
she
“begins
her
workday
scrolling
through
X,
searching
for
claims
of
discrimination,”
after
which
“I
text
my
deputies,
and
we
assign
cases,
and
we
get
cranking.”
This
woman
will
not
be
shamed!
The
first
court
to
rule
was
the
District
of
Oregon,
where
Judge
Mustafa
Kasubhai
said
on
the
bench
Wednesday
that
he
will
almost
certainly
dismiss
the
DOJ’s
claim
for
exceeding
the
language
of
the
NVRA
and
CRA.
PBS
reports
that
the
DOJ
cited
Oregon’s
high
percentage
of
registered
voters
as
a
potential
sign
of
failure
to
remove
ineligible
voters.
But
the
court
demurred:
“I’m
very
cautious
and
doubtful
that
what
you’re
asking
for,
which
is
an
unredacted
list,
is
actually
going
to
give
you
the
information
that
you
need
to
establish
a
violation.”
Judge
Kasubhai
has
yet
to
issue
a
written
ruling,
but
Judge
David
Carter
of
the
Central
District
of
California
beat
him
to
the
punch.
The
81-year-old
jurist
got
a
Bronze
Star
in
Vietnam,
became
a
state
court
judge
in
1981,
joined
the
federal
bench
in
1998,
and
is
out
of
fucks
to
give.
Warning
that
“democracy
can
be
lost
in
a
generation,”
he
lambasted
the
executive
branch
for
seizing
power
over
local
elections
which
the
Constitution
specifically
vests
in
Congress
and
the
states.
“There
cannot
be
unbridled
consolidation
of
all
elections
power
in
the
Executive
without
action
from
Congress
and
public
debate,”
he
wrote.
“This
is
antithetical
to
the
promise
of
fair
and
free
elections
our
country
promises
and
the
franchise
that
civil
rights
leaders
fought
and
died
for.”
“The
taking
of
democracy
does
not
occur
in
one
fell
swoop;
it
is
chipped
away
piece-by-piece
until
there
is
nothing
left,”
he
concluded
ominously.
“The
case
before
the
Court
is
one
of
these
cuts
that
imperils
all
Americans.”
Judge
Carter
dismissed
the
case
in
its
entirety,
and
two
hours
later
the
DOJ
noticed
its
appeal.
Sure,
the
Civil
Rights
Division
is
bleeding
lawyers
and
hundreds
of
staff
have
been
taken
offline
to
review
the
Epstein
Files.
But
when
it
comes
to
chipping
away
at
democracy,
they’ll
make
the
time.
Liz
Dye produces
the
Law
and
Chaos Substack and podcast. You
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