HuffPo:Voting Rights Act Ruling Forces Justice Department Reassignments
WASHINGTON — In striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act last week, members of the Supreme Court didn’t just neuter a major component of landmark civil rights law. The justices also eliminated the workload of several dozen federal employees.
Until the Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder on June 25, a few dozen of the 100 or so employees of the Voting Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division had been assigned to review the 14,000 to 20,000 voting changes submitted each year by jurisdictions that needed DOJ permission before implementing new rules or, say, changing the location of a polling place.
DOJ is reassigning those attorneys and support staff after the Supreme Court ruled that the Voting Rights Act Section 4 — the part of the law that defined which localities needed to have their laws precleared under Section 5 — was unconstitutional. The court’s Section 4 declaration effectively eliminates Section 5 enforcement.
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NYT:Privacy Group to Ask Supreme Court to Stop N.S.A.’s Phone Spying Program
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Of course President Obama could, like was the case with DOMA, simply refuse to defend that case in Court because he doesn’t think that it is Constitutional. But he won’t because there is a difference. He benefits politically from the Patriot act and thus has voted for and signed it three times,has used the FISA Court to extend it application at least once, has defended it multiple times in court and he and his administration has recently been caught “misspreaking” in defense of the NSA’s use of it.