Well, folks, I almost spilled my coffee reading this one. It seems like President Trump’s Justice Department is trying to blur the lines between enforcing the law and being the legal wing of Trump’s political operation. I mean, who needs ethics, right? They’re going after two states, Alaska and California, with a pair of lawsuits that experts say are longshots. But hey, when you’re trying to put your thumb on the electoral scale, you’ve got to try, right?
The lawsuits themselves are pretty interesting. In Alaska, the DOJ is trying to block the certification of the Senate race if GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan loses by a small margin, claiming that voter confusion might have cost him the race. But, as it turns out, the law they’re citing doesn’t actually require states to do what they’re asking. And in California, they’re trying to block the counting of ballots from around 20,000 people who might be noncitizens. Because, you know, that’s not a recipe for chaos or anything.
Bless their hearts, the DOJ is really reaching for this one. I mean, the Alaska lawsuit claims that certifying Democrat Mary Peltola as the winner without examining voter confusion would violate Alaska’s duties under the National Voter Registration Act. But, as Notre Dame Law School Professor Derek Muller pointed out, the law doesn’t actually place any such duties on a state. And Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, called the complaint “an embarrassment to the Department of Justice” that’s “extremely unlikely to succeed.” Ouch, that’s got to hurt.
The California lawsuit is seen as a similar longshot. The administration argues that it can challenge how California has handled noncitizen voting because of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. But, again, there’s no federal law regarding how states should verify citizenship. It’s like they’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Now, I know what you’re thinking – what’s the big deal? It’s just a couple of lawsuits, right? But the thing is, these lawsuits are part of a larger pattern. The Trump administration has been crying wolf about noncitizen voting for a long time, and it’s starting to get old. They claimed there were 16,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls in Nevada, but it turned out to be 185. And when Nevada investigated, they found that all 185 were actually citizens. Oops.
The judge in the case even cited the flawed data while halting portions of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation into noncitizen voting. And that’s the problem – these efforts could ultimately amount to interference or intimidation. It’s like they’re trying to create a pretext for extraordinary action related to the election.
So, what happens if the courts won’t step up to prevent Democrats from cheating to win the Alaska Senate race? What happens if they won’t assist the federal government’s efforts to prevent illegal votes in California? Think about the things a president could justify. It’s a slippery slope, folks.
In the end, it’s all about politics. Trump’s DOJ is trying to influence the outcome of the election, and they’re using the law to do it. It’s not about justice; it’s about winning. And that’s just not how it’s supposed to work. As I always say, you can’t make this stuff up. But hey, at least it’s entertaining. Somewhere in Atlanta, a producer thought this sounded terrifying, and now we get to enjoy the show.
Armchair patriot. Believes in the free market, cold beer, and that there’s always a guy named George behind every CNN segment.
Former remote-throwing champion turned #1 couch commentator on liberal panic in the media. Born in Texas (or so his mug says), he earned a degree in Fake Newsology & Beer Philosophy from YouTube University.
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