The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia over the state’s new voter integrity laws, which were signed in March.
The DOJ alleged the Election Integrity Act of 2021, also known as SB 202, was created for the purpose of “denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race.” Attorney General Merrick Garland is pursuing action against the state by challenging provisions of the bill under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
“The Justice Department’s lawsuit alleges that the cumulative and discriminatory effect of these laws—particularly on Black voters—was known to lawmakers and that lawmakers adopted the law despite this,” The DOJ contented in a release.
The department specifically said it is challenging absentee ballot restrictions, reduction of drop boxes, and voter ID requirements, among other new provisions.
Notably, the lawsuit is one of the first actions taken by the newly minted Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who runs the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. She became a controversial figure during her nomination after statements she made while attending Harvard as an undergraduate resurfaced. In a letter to the Harvard Crimson she claimed Black people are mentally and physically superior, Fox News reported.
“The Department of Justice will use all the tools it has available to ensure that each eligible citizen can register, cast a ballot, and have that ballot counted free from racial discrimination,” Clarke said of the lawsuit.
The Heritage Foundation debunked several Democrat myths surrounding Georgia’s new election laws in April, “which the radical left has falsely described as a voter suppression bill harkening to the era of Jim Crow,” Breitbart News previously reported.
Additionally, polls show close to 80 percent of voters, including more than 60 percent of black voters, support voter ID.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp released a statement about the lawsuit, saying it “empowers federal government overreach in our democracy”:
This lawsuit is born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start. Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and their allies tried to force an unconstitutional elections power grab through Congress – and failed. Now, they are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy.
The case is United States v. Georgia No. 1:21-cv-2575 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
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