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Blog
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Welcome to the Holtzman Vogel Law Blog. We aim to keep you
up to date on important legal developments and other items of interest. On this
blog, we'll track developments in the news and changes to the rules and regulations
affecting political committees, corporate PACs, trade associations, non-profit groups
and advocacy organizations. We'll also keep you updated on the lobbying and ethics
arena. The Law Blog is designed to supplement our regular newsletter.
On behalf of the Holtzman Vogel team, I hope you find this site helpful and interesting.
And we hope you'll become a regular visitor. (If you'd like to receive our newsletter,
please click here to sign up.)
Jill Holtzman Vogel
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Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Center For Individual Rights Files Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act
The Center For Individual Rights announced that it " filed suit today on behalf of a group of Kinston, North Carolina voters and prospective candidates in local elections who claim Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1964 exceeds Congress' authority under the Fifth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder refused to approve a Kinston voter referendum to switch to non-partisan voting and the Kinston City Council voted not to appeal that ruling. Holder blocked the change on the basis of his authority under Section 5. Section 5 prohibits certain state and local jurisdictions (mostly in the south) from implementing changes in voting procedures unless they first obtain federal pre-clearance that the proposed changes do not have the purpose or effect of reducing the ability of citizens to vote on the basis of their race."
National Review's blog, The Corner, has more.
Click here to read the entire post.
Monday, March 22, 2010
NY Times Favors Felon Voting
The New York Times has this editorial in favor of restoring voting rights to released felons.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Hill: Georgia to sue Obama admin. over voter citizenship check
The Hill reports "Election officials in Georgia are accusing the Obama administration of "playing politics" with proposed changes to its voting procedures. The state had asked for permission to use Social Security numbers and driver's license data to verify whether voters are U.S. citizens. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said Wednesday he plans to sue the Department of Justice to get them to approve the changes....Georgia implemented the voter verification process in April 2007 but since the 2008 presidential election, the Justice Department has twice prevented further use of the process, according to Kemp's office."
Click here to read the entire post.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Wash. Times: Formal inquiry sought in polling case; Va.'s Wolf demands Justice response
From the Washington Times: "A senior House Republican plans Wednesday to introduce a 'resolution of inquiry' calling on the House Judiciary Committee to formally ask Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to explain why the Justice Department dismissed a civil complaint against the New Black Panther Party after party members disrupted a Philadelphia polling place in last year's elections. The resolution is being sought by Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, after what he described as six failed attempts to get information from the Justice Department on why the complaint was dropped."
Click here to read the entire post.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Seattle Post Intelligencer: Convicted felons entitled to vote, court rules
The Post Intelligencer reports, "In a move that could see Washington inmates voting from prison, a federal appeals court has thrown out the state's restrictions on felon voting.
Under state law, residents convicted of a felony currently lose the right to vote until they are released from custody and off of Department of Corrections supervision. Tuesday's split ruling by a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel puts those restrictions in doubt, as two of three judges reviewing the voting rights lawsuit found that the state restrictions unfairly penalize minorities. . . . Speaking on the ruling, Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said the court's decision came as a surprise, in part because three circuit court panels elsewhere in the country came to opposite conclusions while reviewing similar cases."
Click here to read the entire post.
Monday, November 16, 2009
AP: Calif. lawyers reap financial benefits from voting rights law they wrote
From the AP: "Every lawsuit filed or even threatened under a California law aimed at electing more minorities to local offices — and all of the roughly $4.3 million from settlements so far — can be traced to just two people: a pair of attorneys who worked together writing the statute, The Associated Press has found.
The law makes it easier for lawyers to sue and win financial judgments in cases arising from claims that minorities effectively were shut out of local elections, while shielding attorneys from liability if the claims are tossed out.
The law was drafted mainly by Seattle law professor Joaquin Avila, with advice from lawyers including Robert Rubin, legal director for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Avila, Rubin's committee and lawyers working with them have collected or billed local governments about $4.3 million in three cases that settled, and could reap more from two pending lawsuits. . . . .Avila and Rubin say their roles in crafting the law shouldn't overshadow its importance and the need to use lawsuits and threats to end years of injustice at the polls. Those they target dispute the need for the law. The number of minority officeholders was climbing even before it was enacted, and they claim the lawyers are using the statute to shake down local governments."
Click here to read the entire post.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Wash. Times: Justice concludes black voters need Democratic Party; U.S. blocks N.C. city's nonpartisan vote
The Washington Times reports "Voters in this small city [Kinston, NC] decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.
The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black." (The Justice Department's ruling was issued in mid-August.)
Click here to read the entire post.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
New York Times Editorial Favors Felon Voting
The New York Times has published an editorial in support of granting voting rights to convicted felons. According to The Times, "The United States aspires to be a nation in which the government rules by the consent of the governed people. Prisoners do not cease to be people. Felon disenfranchisement is also bad prison policy. In recent years, the prison system has all but given up on trying to rehabilitate prisoners. Allowing felons to vote is good preparation for making them free, law-abiding citizens."
Click here to read the entire post.
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