This blog posted about the flawed position of Joe Reed, chair of the Alabama Democratic Conference.  Reed thinks the new Alabama law prohibiting PAC to PAC money transfers should be reviewed under the Voting Rights Act by the Eric Holder Justice Department.  One can only hope his request is dismissed out of hand.  If it is not, litigants challenging the Voting Rights Act have a tempting dish to serve to the United States Supreme Court in their challenges to Section 5.  For such a review would be well outside the constitutional scope of Section 5.  Section 5 does not relate to campaign finance issues.  Alabama should promptly report any inquiry whatsoever by the DOJ to the attorneys litigating the Section 5 challenges (and to the reporters covering the challenges also!) so that the inquiry becomes part of the litigation.  Hopefully, no Section 5 review will take place.

AL.com  has an editorial today on the matter.

“The Justice Department should reject this illogical argument on its face. Reed’s claim is a lame justification to go back to the deceptive system of financing political campaigns before the PAC-to-PAC crackdown.”