Search Results for: eric holder attorney general

The Texas legislature on Tuesday passed a bill containing a set of new voting restrictions that will tighten the state’s already strict voting rules, which is considered some of the strictest in the nation. Senate Bill 1, titled Election Integrity Protection Act, explicitly states the legislative intent to “reduce the likelihood of fraud in the [...]

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 219-212 to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (“the amendment”) in an effort to amend and strengthen the civil-rights-era Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) and to address a history of racial discrimination. The amendment comes exactly a week after US Assistant Attorney General for [...]

Former US President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder held a 45-minute tele-conference Monday in support of the “For the People Act” (HR 1), on which Senate will begin to vote as soon as Tuesday. HR 1 would allow for 15-day advance voting, ban partisan gerrymandering, and require special interest groups to be [...]

Former US Attorney General Eric Holder testified Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration in support of the “For the People Act” on voting rights. Holder said that the Act is necessary to “abolish the undemocratic trinity of issues plaguing our democracy-gerrymandering, voter suppression, and dark money.” Under the proposed legislation, eligible citizens [...]

Voter suppression, which represents the dark underbelly of the American experiment, has reared its head throughout our history, particularly beginning at the cession of the Civil War. After the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, former slaves got an all-too-fleeting taste of emancipation when they not only came out to vote in droves, but [...]

The D.C. Circuit held oral argument on Friday on General Mike Flynn’s mandamus to Judge Emmet Sullivan to grant the Department of Justice (DOJ) Motion to Dismiss false statement charges against Flynn (see my preview, discussed here). A majority of the panel seemed to believe Judge Sullivan should take the first crack at deciding DOJ’s [...]

On Monday, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia filed his response to the petition for mandamus brought by General Michael Flynn in the D.C. Circuit regarding Sullivan’s handling of the Justice Department (DOJ) Motion to Dismiss the false statement charges against Flynn. Flynn had pleaded guilty to [...]

The Justice Department issued a statement on Friday that it would be amending regulations regarding the collection of DNA from persons detained for immigration violations. In 2005, Congress passed the DNA Fingerprint Act, which granted authorization to the Attorney General to collect DNA samples from persons who have been arrested, charged with a crime, or [...]

The Supreme Court ruled against the Virginia House of Delegates in a new racial gerrymandering case. The case began in 2011 when a group of citizens in twelve districts sued the State asserting that the districts had been created with intentional racial disparities. The District Court ordered the House of Delegates to draw up a [...]

Four African-American residents of Mississippi filed a lawsuit in federal court on Thursday seeking to block Mississippi’s process for electing statewide officials due to its discriminatory origins and impact. The plaintiffs challenge a Jim-Crow-era restriction unique to Mississippi: any candidate for statewide office must win not only a majority of the popular vote but a [...]