National Review:

It is not surprising that the Justice Department opposed the intervention of True the Vote, but it is unprecedented. The Justice Department has a policy of not opposing motions to intervene by citizen groups interested in voting issues, such as the NAACP, LULAC, ACLU, MALDEF, and the League of Women Voters.

But all of those organizations are liberal advocacy organizations that oppose all election-integrity efforts. True the Vote is a conservative organization that is made up of Texas residents and voters. Apparently if you are a political ally of the Obama administration, your participation in attacking voter ID is welcome. But if you oppose the administration, then the Justice Department’s lawyers will vigorously oppose your intervention.

In addition to individual plaintiffs, the Texas case has the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Texas League of Young Voters, the Brennan Center, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and the Texas Association of Hispanic County Judges and County Commissioners (TAHCJCC) on the other side, joined with the Justice Department in going after Texas. Illustrating the complete hypocrisy and potential bias of the Justice Department is the fact that at almost the same time that Justice was opposing True the Vote’s intervention, it filed a response to the motion to intervene of the TAHCJCC and Maria Longoria Benevides saying it did “not oppose permissive intervention.”

In fact, Justice told the judge that “Courts have routinely allowed intervention by persons [similarly] situated” to Ms. Benevides, who is “a resident and registered voter of Texas” and to the TAHCJCC which is “an association of elected county officials.” “As such,” according to Justice, “they may possess relevant knowledge and a useful ‘local perspective on the current and historical facts’ at issue in this litigation.”

That perfectly describes True the Vote and Catherine Engelbrecht, a resident and registered voter in Texas, who were not allowed into the case even though Judge Ramos granted the motion of intervention that was filed by the TAHCJCC and Ms. Benevides.