From my testimony yesterday to the House Judiciary Committee about Stanford Law Professor Pam Karlan making up facts about the Bush administration [and thinking she could get away with it] (video stream link here):

Stanford Law Professor Pam Karlan, someone who has testified before committees of this Congress, is another. In a 2009 Duke law journal article, Karlan stated “for five of the eight years of the Bush Administration, [they] brought no Voting Rights Act cases of its own except for one case protecting white voters.” Karlan’s claim is demonstrably false.

The Bush administration filed Section 2 cases against Crockett County, Tennessee, in 2001 to protect black voters; in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 2003, to protect Hispanics; in Osceola County, Florida, in 2005 to protect Hispanics; and, then a flurry of cases including: United States v. City of Euclid, et al (N.D. Ohio 2006), United States v. Village of Port Chester, NY (S.D.N.Y. 2006), United States v. Georgetown County School District, et. al. (D.S.C. 2008). In fact, if you include all Section 2 cases to protect national racial minorities, the Bush administration filed fourteen cases. Again, the Obama administration has filed exactly one, (Lake Park) a matter launched during the Bush administration.

The current lack of results in enforcing Section 2 is all the worse because of the caustic criticism the Bush administration was forced to endure, despite a much more vigorous enforcement record. Worse, the caustic criticism continues. In December 2009, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez criticized the Bush administration Voting Section before the American Constitution Society: “Those who had been entrusted with the keys to the division treated it like a buffet line at the cafeteria, cherry-picking which laws to enforce.” The enforcement record two years removed from Perez’s 2009 bravado at ACS paints a very embarrassing portrait of the Justice Department Voting Section.