Yesterday, RedState reported on the DOJ overstepping its bounds in an attempt to stop states from auditing their elections in order to find and eliminate any possible fraud. Apparently, the federal government believes it’s a violation of people’s voting rights to…ensure an election was carried out fairly in a manner that can not change the outcome? I don’t know, it makes no sense, but that’s not unusual coming from the Biden administration.
AG Merrick Garland and his cohorts weren’t done, though. Now, the DOJ is releasing guidance that truly belabors belief. Apparently, it is now presumed to be unlawful for states to return to pre-pandemic voting procedures.
ICYMI: Biden DOJ warned GOP-led states about moving away from COVID-19 pandemic election laws: “The Department’s enforcement policy does not consider a jurisdiction’s re-adoption of prior voting laws or procedures to be presumptively lawful.”@DCExaminerhttps://t.co/83sCiQwzLe
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) July 29, 2021
The first memo contends the Justice Department will scrutinize states that returned some voting laws to what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“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,” the document said.
“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,” DOJ said. “In view of these developments, guidance concerning federal statutes affecting methods of voting is appropriate.”
That’s quite the escalation as it assumes that a state might not even be able to go back to already existent law without “disenfranchising” voters. Instead, the DOJ’s position seems to be that emergency measures must be made permanent via new laws or states could face legal action for simply reverting back to normal. That’s an insane proposition, but it’s not surprising given the full-court press happening at the federal level to ensure Democrats remain in power after 2022.
As an aside, this is a good example of why Democrats are so effective. They always stay on the offensive while Republicans typically wait to react. In this case, Garland is not only going after new voter integrity laws, but he’s indicating that a reversion to prior laws could constitute racial discrimination in voting. He’s covering every base, no matter how absurd it is.
Now, whether the DOJ has a leg to stand on or not is another question. The answer is likely that they don’t, especially given how much deference the Supreme Court has given on this topic lately (with the upholding of Arizona’s election integrity law being paramount).
Here’s Harmeet K.Dhillon weighing in.
Go pound sand, because citizens will sue right back and the Supreme Court doesn’t seem to be having any of this Voting Rights Act overreach. https://t.co/QqdSlJ6wg9
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) July 29, 2021
I think that’s correct, but the problem is that stalling the system out may be the actual goal here for the DOJ, not prevailing in the end. They will almost certainly lose if one of their challenges reaches the Supreme Court, but in order for that to happen, the court first has to agree to take it up. And with the Supreme Court already deciding what cases to take up over this next year, the DOJ may try to time things right to ensure nothing gets done before the 2022 election (assuming they can find a lower judge to give them the ruling they want, which is not exactly a tall task). In that case, the Supreme Court would have to take enough offense to go ahead and act immediately, something they might be inclined to do.
Regardless, a lot of this might be the DOJ just blowing smoke in a vain attempt to get Republican states to disengage. What I do know is that their logic is asinine and a ridiculous stretching of the law. It is not a violation of the Voting Rights Act to not allow universal mail-in voting or 24-hour precincts, nor is there any objective way to prove those provisions somehow are discriminatory. What the DOJ is doing is obviously just a cynical attempt to influence the 2022 election. Republican states are not going to abide.
This article was originally published by RedState. Read the original article.
