Author Archives: J Christian Adams

Wisconsin AG appeals ruling striking down voter ID law



As promised:



State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen on Monday appealed a two-week-old decision striking down Wisconsin’s voter ID law…

In his ruling, Adelman expressed skepticism that any voter ID law could pass court muster because minorities have a more difficult time than whites obtaining photo identification. He wrote that he would review any changes to the voter ID law that state lawmakers may make — something attorneys in Van Hollen’s Department of Justice said the judge doesn’t have the authority to do.

“By entering such an excessively broad injunction, the court aims to give itself the power of a second Wisconsin governor, equipped with the authority to judicially ‘veto’ future voter photo ID laws that the Wisconsin Legislature might enact. The court has no such power,” wrote Clayton Kawski, an assistant attorney general.


“Rep. John Conyers, longtime congressman, doesn’t qualify for primary ballot, official says”

Longtime Congressman John Conyers of Michigan doesn’t have enough signatures to appear on the Aug. 5 primary ballot, an elections official announced Tuesday.  Conyers’ nominating petitions were insufficient, Wayne County Clerk Kathy Garrett said in a statement.  It follows her report last week finding Conyers more than 400 signatures short of 1,000 needed. Garrett said Tuesday that he had 592 valid signatures after challenges.  The 84-year-old Detroit Democrat was at risk because officials believe several people who signed his petitions do not appear to have been registered voters or had registered too late.  Fox News.

Texas Congressman Brady on new VRAA trigger: “Bill is written to target certain states and communities unfairly”

Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act provided a formula for identifying states that deserved federal oversight — called preclearance — due to a history of discrimination against minority groups. The Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the criteria for such supervision were badly outdated. The justices said Congress could draft new ones, but there’s been little progress on a revision of the law.
…For Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, reimposing preclearance would be unacceptable.
“The bill has been written to target certain states and certain communities unfairly,” he said. “I don’t trust a trigger to reflect the need for preclearance.”

Link to Dallas News for full story.

Democrat Pleads Guilty to Voter Intimidation of Republicans

The plea agreement is here.  A Seattle man pleads guilty to trying to intimidate Republicans via the US mail.  One wonders if this case was in some small measure about making a point about Florida’s citizenship verification laws.  The perp certainly was trying to make that point. 

It’s also worth noting that the facts of the plea don’t seem to rise to the level of a Section 11 violation discussed in the US v. Brown case in the SDMS.  That was a civil case with a lower standard of proof.  The defendant made statements inferring that if certain voters tried to vote they would be subject to denial, at a minimum, and perhaps more. 

The response is that that was the S.D.M.S. and this criminal plea was elsewhere.