Hillary stood up for Wisconsin voters last summer

[bigtree]

Jun 2nd, 2015

A new lawsuit from Hillary Clinton’s legal counsel is taking aim at
Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican Party’s efforts to suppress the vote in Wisconsin.

Rick Hansen of the Election Law Blog reported on the complaint:

This lawsuit concerns the most fundamental of rights guaranteed citizens in our representative democracy—the right to vote. That right has been under attack in Wisconsin since Republicans gained control of the governor’s office and both houses of the State Legislature in the 2010 election. Indeed, since 2011, the State of Wisconsin has twice reduced in-person absentee (“early”) voting, introduced restrictions on voter registration, changed its residency requirements, enacted a law that encourages invasive poll monitoring, eliminated straight-ticket voting, eliminated for most (but not all) citizens the option to obtain an absentee ballot by fax or email, and imposed a voter identification (“voter ID”) requirement. These measures were intended to burden, abridge, and deny, and have had and will have the effect of burdening, abridging, and denying, the voting rights of Wisconsinites generally and of African-American, Latino, young, and/or Democratic voters in Wisconsin in particular.

As set forth below, these and the other provisions challenged in this Complaint (the “challenged provisions”) violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 52 U.S.C. § 10301, and/or the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment, and/or the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The challenged provisions should therefore be declared illegal and enjoined.

Hillary Clinton’s top campaign attorney has filed a similar lawsuit in Ohio. These lawsuits are proof that the Clinton team is planning on being very proactive and aggressive in the fight against Republican voter suppression tactics.

It is smart for Clinton’s representation to file these lawsuits instead of the campaign itself. The campaign will still have the option of legal action, and the Justice Department will be very active in protecting voting rights.


read: http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/02/hillary-clintons-lawyer-files-lawsuit-scott-walkers-voter-suppression-tactics.html

[LisaM]

1. Her team has been on this for a while.

And there have been victories.

[bigtree]

2. kick

[PeaceNikki]

3. But I read here on DU that "Team Hillary" is cheering on voter suppression.

Oh, right - that was one asshole on Facebook.

[PeaceNikki]

4. Kicking for of of those who say HRC supporters never post positive messages about her.

they sink like a rock.

[Gothmog]

5. As Hillary Clinton Pitches Voting Rights On The Trail, Her Counsel Looks To Fight For Them in Court

Marc Elias, the chief counsel for the Clinton Victory Counsel program, is busy suing the GOP and fighting GOP vote suppression http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/voting-rights-lawsuits-_n_7594960.html

The general counsel for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign is heading up three high-profile lawsuits against Republican-backed voting restrictions in what is shaping up to be a perfect political and legal storm leading up to the 2016 election.

The attorney, Marc Elias, is involved in lawsuits challenging measures passed in Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, arguing that laws cutting back early voting, restricting registration and requiring photo identification to vote, among other measures, disproportionately impact racial minorities.

Conservatives have argued such measures protect against voter fraud, and have called the lawsuits a political effort to energize Democratic voters. The financial involvement of the billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros, who is supporting the suits, has only incensed them further.

There are high stakes to the lawsuits, as the Supreme Court displayed a certain skepticism about federal voting rights legislation when it struck down a key section of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 2013. That provision had required states and localities with a history of voting discrimination to first clear any changes to their voting laws with the federal government or in federal court. The VRA still bars voting procedures that discriminate against racial minorities, but the strength of that section hasn’t been tested since the court’s controversial decision two years ago.

So, while the politics of Elias’ cases have attracted most of the attention — Clinton recently decried measures supported by Republican governors, like fellow presidential hopeful Scott Walker of Wisconsin — there is an equivalent amount of intrigue on the legal side. Some of the provisions targeted in the lawsuits, like Wisconsin’s voter identification law, have already been challenged, while others, like Virginia’s photo ID law, haven’t yet seen the inside of a courtroom.

The GOP is very good at voter suppression and I am glad that Marc is fighting against the GOP. Unfortunately, the Wisconsin voer id law will be in effect for Tuesday primary.

[mcar]

6. K&R