[EL] question about new DOJ suit against Georgia

[Rick Hasen]

There’s a press conference now where DOJ officials are discussing bringing a case against Georgia for its new voting law. The claim is that Georgia enacted its law with a discriminatory purpose in violation of Section 2 of the VRA.
Given the uncertainty about what Section 2 is going to mean in the context of vote denial cases with the pending Brnovich decision (and section 2’s focus on discriminatory results or effects rather than purpose), it seems this kind of claim should be coupled with a 14th/15th amendment intentional discrimination claim.

Does DOJ have authority to sue for such constitutional violations?  I recall Justin writing something about this on the list a while back, but he’s now working for the Biden Administration and so I can’t ask him.

Thanks!



--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>



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