Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against the State of Georgia to Stop Racially Discriminatory Provisions of New Voting Law.
Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against the State of Georgia to Stop Racially Discriminatory Provisions of New Voting Lawhttps://t.co/C5gLwXsryK pic.twitter.com/KqwuoBynEG
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) June 25, 2021
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday filed a lawsuit against Georgia over the state’s recently passed voting law, announced Attorney General Merrick Garland, who alleged the law is a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act’s protections for minority voters.
“Where we see violations of federal law, we will act,” Garland said at a press conference on Friday, describing the new lawsuit as “the first of many steps we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote.”
The DOJ’s move is the first federal response to the push by Republican-led state legislatures for more regulations around elections; including mandating popular voter ID laws; rule changes around mail-in balloting; enhanced signature verification processes, audits, and more. Democrats, meanwhile, have pushed for sweeping legislation that would attempt to expand voting access; while rejecting controls around voter ID, mail-in balloting, and other proposed laws.
During Friday’s announcement, Garland appeared to echo rhetoric from Democrats who argued that Georgia’s voting law would violate the rights of black people and other minority groups.
“We are scrutinizing new laws that seek to curb voter access, and where we see violations of federal law, we will not hesitate to act,” Garland said. “We are also scrutinizing current laws and practices, in order to determine whether they discriminate against black voters and other voters of color.”
The attorney general did not provide more details about the claim that the law violates minority groups’ rights during the news conference. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, previously has categorically denied that the law would imperil minorities’ voting rights.
On Friday, in a statement to The Epoch Times, Kemp criticized the DOJ’s lawsuit as being a product “of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start.”
“Now,” his statement added, “they are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy.”
