[EL] Attention fellow totalitarians...

Sun Apr 20 05:47:24 PDT 2014

Dear Mr. Shapiro:

There is nothing slanderous about what I say about Mr. Adams, and if you
find it laughable, I am delighted to have tickled your fancy!

I find no evidence that Mr. Adams is a white supremacist and it is only in
your mind that I imply that. Mr. Adams litigates under the Voting Rights
Act sometimes, like in a recent case arguing that non natives from Guam
should not be excluded from voting. He tends to be an advocate for the use
of section 2 to protect the rights of people who are not of color, and who
are more likely to vote Republican. I see nothing in the text of the law
that prohibits him or me from advocating for the voting rights of white or
Republican clients.

As to Mr. Adams' advocacy against voter intimidation by blacks, it would
not matter to me whether a member of the Klu Klux Klan or the "New Black
Panther" party behaved as Mr. Adams complains about. There is no excuse for
that kind of behavior. On the other hand, the real significance of this
incident has been tremendously overblown. This was a troubling activity at
a polling place by a very few isolated fruit cakes. The incident was used
by the ditto-head press in the same way as welfare queens and Willie
Horton, and then -- ridiculously -- in an effort to cast unjustified doubt
on the results of the 2008 election. As somebody who monitors polls for
problems with voter intimidation, we get fruit cakes every year. The way
you deal with this sort of behavior is that you call the cops, report it to
the Chief election officer, and your party's voter protection line. The
clowns cut it out or get hauled off to jail and life goes on. There is
almost never a need to make a federal case out of it.

Christian Adams is an excellent lawyer. But one concern I have about Mr.
Adams recent public advocacy is that he became the public face of a
successful effort to block the appointment of a nominated Obama
administration appointee who is an attorney on the basis of some clients
the attorney had advocated for long before -- including criminal clients.
If Christian Adams were to be characterized in the same way for the
characteristics of his clients -- or their legal arguments -- that could be
interpreted as supporting the idea that he is a "White Power" guy. John
Adams represented British soldiers who were accused of participating in the
Boston Massacre. Patriots understood the importance of his role as an
advocate, and appreciated that this did not make him a Tory.. I do not
think that Christian Adams' work as an attorney for the interests of whites
means that he is a racist at all. On the other hand, he should not have
campaigned against a fellow member of the bar in this fashion.

I do not see Mr. Adams' work as focused on fighting against racial
preferences in voting. If he were, I might support these efforts. As a
Democrat, it has been my observation that racial gerrymandering generally
works against the interests of the Democratic Party in modern times. Mr.
Adams seems more focused on the idea that advances in race relations since
the 1960s make laws like the VRA so obsolete as to be unconstitutional.
I'll let Mr. Adams speak for himself:

http://mediamatters.org/tags/j-christian-adams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLT95CxzIDE

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/06/25/supreme-court-buries-section-5-of-voting-rights-act/

http://www.mainjustice.com/tag/j-christian-adams/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My3Q-QYoX-s#t=25

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2014/02/25/black-ucla-law-students-complain-about-equality/

Given these contentions about the VRA, the next obvious conclusion is that
federal government cannot constitutionally regulate lunch counters anymore.
Even Title VII is thrown into question. If Mr. Adams wants to test these
view here, let him bring it on. I certainly would engage him.

Both democrats and republicans can be members of True the Vote. On the
other hand, the organization coordinates pollwatching and voter list
purging activities that directly plug into local Republican Party
strategies, and involves Republican Party poll watchers overwhelmingly. The
organization focuses on initiatives that tend to weed people out of the
pool of voters: this is where the Republican Party is at. The Democratic
Party strategy is focused on inclusion. True the Vote is thus markedly
different in many respects from liberal organizations I would guess that
you have in mind.

It is also not true that someone adhere to absolute stare decisis in order
for me to characterize them as "conservative." I tend to go with the
dictionary definition. But much time could be wasted in arguments over
these definitions. I do not think of Justice Thomas as a conservative
either. If it pleases you think of him that way, and think that it would be
"conservative" to overturn the VRA and the CRA because the Constitution
ought to recognize that "Times Have A Changed" since the 1960s and we are
completely over all of that racism stuff now, good for you. You can have
your names for that, and I can have mine.

Best,

Marc

On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 11:56 AM, Abigail Thernstrom <
abigail.thernstrom at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Conservatives are generally lonely in the academy, but Rick makes sure
> that voices across the political spectrum are heard.  I'm fully of
> admiration and gratitude.  I am also indebted.  I know one corner of
> election law: the VRA, about which I have written two books, the first
> published by Harvard University Press in 1987 and the recipient of multiple
> prizes including one from the ABA (a small miracle given my conservative
> politics).  But I have been woefully ignorant about most other election law
> topics, and the listserv has provided some much-needed education.
>
> Abby
>
> Abigail Thernstrom
> Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
> Vice-chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2001 - 2013
> www.thernstrom.com
>
>
> On Apr 17, 2014, at 4:31 PM, Rick Hasen wrote:
>
>  I have a favor to ask those who self-identify as conservatives or
> libertarians.
> If you have expressed your support for the listserv (and/or my moderation
> of it) in a post to the listserv or if you are willing to write a public
> message about it, please let me know (by sending an email that I can
> publish your remarks).  I will likely include some of them in a post on the
> Election Law Blog.  I only want to post from those persons who are willing
> to have their names included.
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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