Big Law is complaining about the Shelby opinion. The complaint? They won’t have easy pro bono cases to pursue and market.
“The decision leaves hanging some of the most notable pro bono victories large law firms won last year, especially those that relied heavily on the “preclearance” mechanism of section 5. Lawyers from firms including Arnold & Porter; Dechert; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; and Sullivan & Cromwell donated thousands of hours of time…”
Here’s an idea – go find a win a Section 2 case. It’s telling they mostly want to bring pro bono cases where the burden has shifted against the state under Section 5. Perhaps they can pick up the slack where the DOJ has dropped the ball – finding and winning Section 2 cases. Somehow I doubt Big Law will be quite as successful in a complicated Section 2 case than they are swatting away flies in a burden shifted Section 5 case. It won’t look quite as good to the marketing department at the big law firm.
Shelby: Win for America and Obama Campaign
Joel Pollack at Breitbart.
“NC voter ID bill moving ahead with Supreme Court ruling”
WRAL reports that North Carolina is set to move ahead with a voter ID for 2016 – the next question is whether the legislature will move up the implementation date to 2013.:
A bill requiring voters to present one of several forms of state-issued
photo ID starting in 2016 cleared the House two months ago, but it’s
been sitting since in the Senate Rules Committee to wait for a ruling by
the justices in an Alabama case, according to Sen. Tom Apodaca,
R-Henderson, the committee chairman. He said a bill will now be rolled
out in the Senate next week.
And omnibus voting bill:
He predicted an omnibus voting bill would surface in the Senate next
week that could go beyond voter ID to include issues such as reducing
early voting, eliminating Sunday voting and barring same-day voter
registration.
Section 5 “Flushed Down the Toilet”
“After Supreme Court ruling, states see green light for voter ID laws”
CNN reports on the floodgates opening on photo ID.
Requests by Texas and Mississippi for clearance in their voter ID laws
were pending with the federal government when the high court struck down
the constitutionality of the act’s Section 4 on Tuesday, which also
appears to have nullified Section 5. Delbert Hosemann, Mississippi’s secretary of state, interpreted the
court’s decision to mean his state was on “equal footing” with other
states and could move forward with its voter ID law without getting
permission from the government.“The Court’s decision removes requirements for Mississippi to travel
through the expensive and time consuming federal application process for
any change to state, county, or municipal voting law,” he said in a
statement. “This chapter is closed.”
Hosemann said Mississippi would begin implementing its voter ID law starting Tuesday. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a similar statement,
declaring voting laws have been applied “unequally” to some states and
Tuesday’s ruling negates that inequality.
Why Shelby Happened: “Things Have Changed in the South”
A timely South Carolina Law Review article by John Tamasitis. I find this note enlightening: 295. Indeed, individuals familiar with the inside workings of the DOJ Voting Right Section reported that President Obama’s political appointees in the DOJ made the decision to object to preclearance of the South Carolina voter ID law over the recommendation of career DOJ lawyers and supervisors who believed the law should have been precleared. J. Christian Adams,
DOJ Documents Argued for SC Voter ID Approval . . . but Obama Appointees Overruled, PJ MEDIA
(Sept. 11, 2012, 8:10 PM),
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on .
PJ Tatler has the vulgar story. Nothing new and unfamiliar here. The Left’s response to the Shelby decision today? Race smears of a Supreme Court Justice. “Craig Guymon allegedly voted here at this poling place Tuesday morning, then filed an absentee ballot at the county auditors office Tuesday afternoon. The county auditor says she’s never seen anything like it.” Link. “Now, federal preclearance of state election procedures seems to be forever dead and buried. While some Congressional Republicans had vowed to enact new legislation to “fix” any coverage formula deemed unconstitutional, the Court opinion today offers almost no room to do so. . . .
Shelby Reaction: “DOJ’s Tom Perez Defiance of the Supreme Court”
Response to Shelby: Racial Smears
On his Twitter account Tuesday, state Rep. Ryan Winkler called the justices’ 5-4 ruling striking down a part of the law racist, and the work of “four accomplices to race discrimination and one Uncle Thomas.” Justice Thomas, who is black, was one of the five justices in the majority.
Get used to it. The Republicans in Congress are next, and perhaps the day is past when racial thuggery can alter policy. Perhaps not. We’ll find out soon enough how much things have changed in Congress.
I think I debated Winkler at the University of Minnesota law school some years ago. At the time, he didn’t seem like the sort of person to use racially charged taunts. I guess anything is possible these days among Section 5 supporters.
Voter Fraud Arrest in South Dakota
“Supreme Court Buries Section 5 of Voting Rights Act”
Over the years, the Justice Department unit enforcing Section 5 has had hundreds of thousands of dollars in court sanctions imposed against it for abusing the Section 5 process. They even demanded that Alabama submit felon DNA testing to the Justice Department for approval, a law which had nothing to do with elections.”
Full story here.