Obama’s False Claims of Voting Rights Denied

If President Obama really believes his State of the Union claim that the right to vote is still “being denied to too many,” he should give Attorney General Eric Holder a serious dressing-down. According to its own records, the Department of Justice (DOJ) didn’t initiate a single case in 2014 claiming that anyone had denied someone the right to vote.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) prohibits any voting practice or procedure that discriminates on the basis of race, color or membership in a language minority group. The Voting Section of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is charged with enforcing the VRA and other federal statutes protecting the right to register and vote. The section’s web page lists all DOJ lawsuits filed. And there’s nary a one from all of 2014 that charges anyone, anywhere with keeping someone from voting.

Another part of the Voting Rights Act, Section 11(b), prohibits voter intimidation, harassment or coercion. The Voting Section hasn’t filed a lawsuit under this provision since 2009 when it filed a case against the New Black Panther Party for intimidating and harassing voters and poll watchers in Philadelphia. The Justice Department inexplicably dismissed that case after it had already won a default judgment.

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