Texas Discriminated Against Minority Voters and GOP's Justice Dept Doesn’t Care

Dictators stay in power by not allowing a vote for their position at all or staging an "election" that is controlled in a manner that pre-determines the results.  In the United States, something so brazen seems unimaginable.  From the "Election Integrity" Commission to revocation of the Voting Rights Act, wildly absurd claims of voter fraud and undocumented individuals voting, rampant gerrymandering and attempt to rig the 2020 Census..... These are directly from the playbook of a dictator, supported not just by Trump, but by a Republican Party determined to hold onto power at all costs.  That playbook is continuing to unfold and we must pay attention and Be Smart so we can Actively Dissent.

The Justice Department reversed its position in a closely watched voting rights case on Tuesday, telling a panel of federal judges Texas shouldn’t have to clear its voting changes with the federal government despite its history of intentionally discriminating against voters.

The filing came in a Texas gerrymandering lawsuit, Abbott v. Perez, and has big implications for the remaining power of the Voting Rights Act, the 1965 law to prevent discrimination against minorities.

Requiring states to clear voting changes is considered the heart and the most powerful part of the Voting Rights Act because it prevents discriminatory voting policies before they go into effect. For decades, it blocked places with a history of discrimination from enacting restrictive policies that would suppress voters.   In Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the law the federal government used to require certain jurisdictions, including Texas, to clear their voting changes with the federal government. The decision allowed states to enact voting restrictions and leaving voting rights groups able to challenge them only after the fact.

Now OUR Department of Justice, with corrupt leadership under an interim Attorney General following the worst AG in history Jeff Sessions, is taking steps EVERY SINGLE DAY to harm all of us.  In this case, they bailed on their duty to protect our voting rights.  When this happens, states, counties, and cities will take full advantage to suppress voting.  That's exactly what Republicans want to happen.  They are evil, not stupid.

Several former Justice Department lawyers, some of whom worked on the case, said the reversal was alarming because the pattern of discrimination in Texas was so clear and the state is likely to do the same thing again without federal supervision.

The plaintiffs in the suit, and the Justice Department until Tuesday, said Texas’ pattern of discriminating against minority voters, both recently and historically, meant it should have to have any changes to its voting laws pre-cleared, or pre-approved, by the federal government.

The below quotes spell out exactly what's happening in Texas and across this nation.

Justin Levitt, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division who worked on the Texas case, said the Tuesday filing was “trash.”

He said Texas repeatedly, blatantly and intentionally discriminated against minority voters and refused to stop even when warned by the Supreme Court. That kind of discrimination, Levitt said, was precisely the kind of thing Congress wanted to prevent when it included pre-clearance provisions in the Voting Rights Act. Texas is likely to discriminate again during the next round of redistricting in 2021 and has little incentive not to unless it is under the supervision of the federal government. Texas, Levitt said, has shown an “addiction to racism” that it isn’t going to fix on its own.

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/texas-voting-rights-preclearance_us_5c51fcb5e4b093663f5ac532