While most Americans with jobs will be busy flipping burgers, driving trucks or cleaning offices, Friday should be fun for all the Federal employees at the Voting Section at the Department of Justice. It’s “Field Trip” day to the federal court. Arguments will be heard in the case of Laroque v. Holder. This morning, an invitation went out to all 89 Voting Section employees encouraging them to leave work and trek across town to sit in on a court hearing. These are federal employees who are not assigned to work on the case being heard on Friday. They have no legitimate job related purpose to be there. They can read a transcript of the hearing if they need to.
But who can pass up a nice leisurely jaunt out of a moribund office to watch some courtroom drama? It’s the same reason prisoners are willing to pick filthy garbage up from the side of the road. Anything beats sitting around, doing nothing behind a closed door, watching the clock and scrambling for work assignments that never materialize.
Tired of cases being rejected to protect language minority voters in Democratic-controlled jurisdictions? Hand me a garbage bag! Confused why political leadership won’t approve investigations into states with too many dead people on the rolls? Sign me up for that Field Trip! No more Section two cases being approved? Get me outta here!
It’s why even pressing license plates can be appealing after days of solitary idleness. So maybe the taxpayers funding the Field Trip can be merciful when an entire federal office of 89 people is invited to leave work and depart the office for some courtroom drama.
Of course many of their jobs will depend on the outcome of the hearing. If Section 5 is struck down, credible justifications to maintain these federal jobs evaporate.
In Laroque v. Holder, Kinston NC residents are challenging the Constitutionality of Section 5 preclearance requirements. In April 2009, then political appointee Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King interposed an objection to Kinston’s move away from partisan elections for town council – opining that black voters wouldn’t know for whom to vote if the word “Democrat” did not appear next to their name.
Then again, perhaps there will be no productivity loss – it is well known that nobody in the Voting Section has any work to do. So much for “reinvigorating” the voting laws.
Maybe someone can report back how many Voting Section employees went on the Field Trip to the Federal Courthouse on Friday. Or, maybe someone can submit a Freedom of Information Request to the Voting Section for all Voting Section employee emails “seeking permission from their supervisors pursuant to an email of December 1, 2010 from the Section Chief to attend a hearing in Laroque v. Holder” to this email: Voting.Section@usdoj.gov.