Tag Archives: Justice Department

Pennsylvania’s Voter Suppression

Last Wednesday, in a truly stunning partisan ruling, a Pennsylvania Republican judge named Robert Simpson declined to block a new state law requiring specific kinds of photo identification to vote.

In his ruling, Simpson admitted that there MIGHT have been a partisan motive behind the law and that it might indeed cause difficulties for tens of thousands of voters on Nov. 6. Ya think? Pennsylvania’s Republican House majority leader, Mike Turzai stated in a video that’s gone viral that the law “is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state Pennsylvania.”

Simpson said he believed promises by state officials that they would get ID cards into the hands of the vast majority of residents who needed them by Election Day, and that those with difficulties would be able to vote through a provisional or an absentee ballot.

But according to Pennsylvania’s Department of State and the Department of Transportation, as many as 758,000 people, about 9 percent of the state’s 8.2 million registered voters, currently don’t have the identification that now will be required at the polling place. Even if 90 percent of those voters got the correct identification by Nov. 6, that still could leave 75,800 voters disenfranchised.

But Pennsylvania is only the tip of the iceberg. Nine states — South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama —have passed strict voter ID laws, despite the fact that there is virtually no evidence of voter ID fraud.

In a new nationwide analysis of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases since 2000, reporters Natasha Khan and Corbin Carson found a total of 10 cases of voter impersonation. With 146 million registered voters in the United States during that time, those 10 cases represent one out of about every 15 million prospective voters. David Schultz, Hamline University professor of public policy, is quoted in the article as saying that, “There is absolutely no evidence that voter fraud has affected the outcome of any election in the United States, at least any recent election in the United States.”

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the Pennsylvania ID law violates the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act by discriminating against minorities. And Judge Simpson’s ruling has been appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. But the appeal may be too late to stop the current law from disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters in the November election.

Voter Suppression

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According to a report by the Brennan Center for Justice, new legislation passed in 2011 in 14 states made it harder for minorities, seniors, and students to vote. As a result, it’s estimated that more than five million eligible voters will have a more difficult time voting in the 2012 election. But is there really voter fraud taking place throughout the country?

A comprehensive Justice Department investigation found that between 2002 and 2007 not a single person was prosecuted for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti-fraud laws are supposedly designed to stop. Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud–– and the vast majority of those cases involved immigrants and former felons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility.

Yesterday, a US District Court judge blocked portions of Florida’s registration law requiring voter-drive groups to turn over completed materials to the state within 48 hours or face possible $1,000 fines. The two-day window, which was previously 10 days, made no provision for mailing applications and served little, if any, purpose, the judge stated.

Also yesterday, the Justice Department wrote Florida’s Secretary of State warning that a state program to identify 180,00 ineligible voters may violate federal law, including one aimed at reviewing voter limits in states such as Florida with a history of racial discrimination. The U.S. told the state to respond by June 6 whether it will cease the practice.

The question facing the Justice Department is whether Florida’s attempt to verify voter eligibility violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. Under the Voting Rights Act, federal approval is required for election law changes in five Florida counties because of past racial discrimination. Any changes must be submitted for review by a federal judge in Washington and the U.S. attorney general under the Voting Rights Act.

Here’s a suggestion. Instead of worrying about imagined voter fraud, perhaps those concerned citizens so interested in protecting voting rights and preserving democracy should concentrate their efforts on registering the 51 million citizens––more than 24 percent of the eligible population––who are not registered to vote.

After all, as the Brennan Center for Justice concluded, “It is more likely that an individual will be struck by lightning, than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.”

Bankster Justice

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In the mid-1990s, the top mortgage insurers and service providers, along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government entities that hold many of the country’s mortgages, created a database for tracking mortgage ownership called the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS. Since that time, more than 70 million mortgage loans, including millions of sub-prime loans, have been registered in the MERS system, rather than in local county clerks’ office.

Last Friday, Eric Schneiderman, New York Attorney General and co-chair of President Obama’s new crisis unit, sued Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan, accusing them of deceptive and illegal practices in their use of the database, including falsifying documents in foreclosure proceedings.

Schneiderman contends that the database is inaccurate and that the mortgage industry created MERS so that financial institutions could avoid county recording fees and publicly recorded mortgage transfers, saving the banks two billion dollars in recording fees. The lawsuit seeks to stop the banks from filing foreclosure actions through MERS.

Too bad it’s taken the Obama administration, and Eric Holder in particular, so long to go after the banksters responsible for the country’s financial collapse. (How one wishes that Robert Kennedy were heading the Justice Department.) Instead, Holder tried to cut an incredibly bad deal that would have the banks pay $20-25 billion in fines and mortgage relief in exchange for protection from further liability.

But thanks to Schneiderman, California’s Kamala Harris, Martha Coakley of Massachusetts and Beau Biden of Delaware––and a series of court rulings that have blocked foreclosures because banks presented fraudulent robo-signed documents––the administration has been forced to seek much stiffer fines and prison sentences.

But beyond stiff fines and long prison sentences for the worst of the banksters, the economy and the real estate market will not fully recover until the millions of homeowners with upside down mortgages get some relief. It appears that the Obama administration has finally come to the conclusion that creating a crisis unit and appointing a bulldog like Schneiderman is in their––and the country’s best interest.

It was illegal behavior by the banks, and not the homebuyer, that caused the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. Now, finally, we may get a reckoning. It’s the banksters’ worst nightmare come true.

Cover-Up at Guantánamo

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Late in the evening on June 9, 2006, three prisoners at Guantánamo Bay reportedly committed suicide. A fascinating article written by Scott Horton that will appear in the March 2009 edition of Harper’s Magazine, questions the government’s account of what actually occurred that night, and has the makings of a blockbuster Hollywood movie similar to “A Few Good Men.”

According to Horton, the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which has primary investigative jurisdiction within the naval base, issued a report two years after the three deaths claiming that the prisoners made a noose from torn sheets and T-shirts and tied it to the top of his cell’s eight-foot-high wall. Each prisoner then stuffed rags deep into his own throat, tied their own hands, and, in at least one case, his own feet. While bound and choking on the rags, each prisoner climbed up on his washbasin, slipped his head through the noose, tightened it, and leapt from the washbasin. At least two of the prisoners also had cloth masks affixed to their faces, presumably to prevent the expulsion of the rags from their mouths. The NCIS report proposes that the three prisoners, who were held in non-adjoining cells, carried out these actions almost simultaneously.

The NCIS report also claimed that the prisoners hung sheets or blankets to hide their activities and shaped additional sheets and pillows to look like bodies sleeping in their beds. No explanation is given as to where the prisoners acquired the extra fabric, or why the Navy guards allowed this behavior to occur. Nor does the report explain how the dead men managed to hang undetected for more than two hours since standard operating procedure at Camp Delta requires the Navy guards on duty after midnight to “conduct a visual search” of each cell and detainee every ten minutes. No one was ever disciplined for this obvious failure of duty.

Still more troubling is that the three deaths occurred in a secret area called “Camp No” because anyone who asked if it existed was told, “No, it doesn’t.” According to the report, the bodies of the three men showed signs of torture, including hemorrhages, needle marks, and significant bruising. Also, the removal of their throats during the autopsy made it difficult to determine whether they were already dead before they supposedly hung themselves. The existence of “Camp No” appears to confirm that a black site run by the CIA existed at Guantánamo.

Four members of the Military Intelligence unit assigned to guard Camp Delta, including a decorated non-commissioned Army officer who was on duty as sergeant of the guard the night the three men died, have come forward with accounts dramatically different than the NCIS report—a report for which they were neither interviewed nor approached. All four soldiers say they were ordered by their commanding officer not to speak out, and all four soldiers provide evidence that authorities initiated a cover-up within hours of the prisoners’ deaths.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this whole situation is that even with the new Obama administration in office, the Justice Department continues to stand by the NCIS report. More evidence of change we can believe in. Where is Mark Harmon when we need him?

You can read the entire article at:

http://harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368

Judgment At The Justice Department

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Last week, Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed a special prosecutor to continue the internal Justice Department inquiry into the firings of nine federal prosecutors. Mukasey concluded that the process used to remove nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 was fundamentally flawed, and that the attorneys were never given reasons for their removal or an opportunity to speak to concerns about their performance.

Mukasey went on to say that former Attorney General Alberto “I don’t recall” Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty were primarily responsible for the failures within the Justice Department.

Mukasey’s report and his appointment of a special prosecutor is good news for those of us who initially questioned Bush’s selection of Mukasey as Attorney General, and then watched Mukasey obfuscate when it came to this important investigation. He could have easily issued the report and then merely waited out the clock until the Bush term mercifully ended. Maybe Mukasey finally realized that incompetence and corruption had severely damaged the credibility and integrity of the Justice Department and was undermining America’s faith in their judicial system.

Whether Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici and others who have stonewalled the investigation will finally be required to testify remains to be seen. Hopefully, given subpoena powers, the special prosecutor will be able to determine if laws were broken and then bring the perpetrators to justice.

The investigation will continue into the next administration. But regardless of the outcome, it is truly stunning that some of the highest officials in the legislative and executive branches of government have steadfastly refused to cooperate. It’s even more frightening to think that Harriet Miers was only a Senate confirmation vote away from being a Supreme Court Justice.

Those sworn to uphold the law should certainly be expected to abide by it. That includes Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin who has refused to testify in an investigation into whether she abused her powers by firing a commissioner who would not dismiss her former brother-in-law.

Sound familiar?