Federal court rules that right-wing voter challenges in Georgia are not illegal

https://fairfight.com/statement-on-ff-v-ttv-ruling/

A federal judge vigorously criticized the tactics of True The Vote, a right-wing organization that has challenged the registration of 364,000 Georgia voters. He stated:

"TTV's approach to list maintenance 'utterly lacked reliability' and 'verges on recklessness.'"

However, he did not find that the challenges constituted illegal voter intimidation under the federal Voting Rights Act. Fair Fight, the voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, vows to continue to challenge TTV's voter suppression tactics by other means.

Charlie Cooper

Trump issues dog-whistle call for violence on disqualification

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4392902-trump-warns-big-trouble-as-scotus-agrees-hear-colorado-case/

Donald Trump predicted "big trouble" if the Supreme Court does not rule in his favor in his appeal of the 14.3 disqualification case in Colorado.

"'I just hope we get fair treatment,' Trump said at an Iowa rally Friday. 'Because if we don't, our country's in big, big trouble. Does everybody understand what I'm saying?'"

Charlie Cooper

Biden schedules campaign speech on democracy

https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-2024-democracy-threat-national-traumas-66167f70a167592c23067180fbe55910

Pres. Biden will deliver a campaign speech near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on January 5, 2024. He seeks to invoke the memory of the Revolutionary War to illustrate that a Trump presidency would constitute a grave threat to democracy. GMOM and many other groups, however, will be looking for concrete action. Biden could require firms with large federal contracts to disclose all election spending, and he could crack down on foreign money that is influencing elections. A purely rhetorical discussion of democracy will be disappointing.

Charlie Cooper

Letter to Pres. Biden urges executive action on democracy initiatives

https://us.transparency.org/resource/cso-letter-to-president-biden-calling-for-continued-pro-democracy-legislation/

GMOM is a signatory to this letter to Pres. Biden urging him to take concrete action to protect democracy. The groups urge Biden: 

"... to direct the U.S. Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to determine the frequency and amount of foreign money that is directly or indirectly spent in connection with U.S. elections, to call on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to begin a rulemaking process requiring public corporations to disclose the full extent of their lobbying activities and expenditures, and to maximize the use of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's forthcoming beneficial ownership database to investigate cases of corruption and foreign money laundering...."

Charlie Cooper

Federal judge denies Fair Fight a victory in voter intimidation case

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-judge-rules-right-wing-groups-mass-voter-challenges-did-not-intimidate-georgia-voters/

A right-wing group called True the Vote set up and funded an operation that challenged the voter registration of 364,000 people in Georgia, targeting mostly people of color. A federal judge ruled that the operation did not violate the voter intimidation clause of the Voting Rights Act. The judge criticized that substance of the voter challenge methodology as cruel and unfair but said these were matters that should be corrected by the Georgia legislature -- which is gerrymandered to be in the control of Republicans who will not act to correct these injustices.

Charlie Cooper

Trump on the ballot? It's a matter of law.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/01/01/trump-ballot-speculation/

This is my letter to the editor criticizing political speculation and calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a speedy ruling as to whether Trump is disqualified to serve as President under 14.3

Charlie Cooper

8th Circuit Court of Appeals seeks to weaken Voting Rights Act

https://www.courthousenews.com/eighth-circuit-ruling-limits-enforcement-of-voting-rights-act/

The Arkansas NAACP and other citizen groups filed suit to say that reapportionment of the Arkansas legislature violated the Voting Rights Act bar on racial gerrymanders. But in early December of 2023, a panel of the the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis agreed with a lower Court judge who ruled that the Voting Rights Act permits only the U.S. Attorney General to file suit -- not private citizens. If upheld, this ruling will overturn almost 60 years of practice and a prior U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Charlie Cooper