,

Attorney General Eric Holder Says DOJ May Get Involved In Wisconsin Voter ID Lawsuit

Holder Made Reference To Lawsuit During ABC News Interview

By
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaking during a recent conference in London. Photo: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (CC-BY).

Attorney General Eric Holder said that he expects the U.S. Department of Justice will get involved in the federal lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s voter ID law.

Holder made reference to Wisconsin’s lawsuit in an interview with ABC News, in which he was asked about challenges to state voting laws.

According to a transcript of the interview that was released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Holder said:

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“We have already filed suit in Texas and North Carolina. I expect that we are going to be filing in cases that are already in existence in Wisconsin as well as in Ohio.

A spokesperson for Holder had no further comment.

It’s not the first time Holder has referenced the federal lawsuit that blocked Wisconsin’s voter ID law on the grounds that it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race.

In a video message released last month, Holder signaled that Section 2 challenges could become a useful tool for the DOJ:

“It’s clear that discriminatory voting laws, rules and regulations are not confined to any particular region, and thanks to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, neither are our enforcement efforts.”

In that same message, Holder quoted from the Wisconsin decision by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman.

“The Wisconsin law erected significant barriers to equal access without serving any legitimate government interest. Because as the judge found, and I quote, ‘The defendants could not point to a single instance of known voter impersonation occurring in Wisconsin at any time in the recent past.’”

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who is appealing the voter ID ruling, released a statement in response:

“Maybe Mr. Holder should take his army of lawyers and start enforcing our nation’s immigration laws. He should focus on the law and not his, or the President’s, personal beliefs. At a time when an immigration crisis is rattling the nation, the Attorney General is choosing to spend taxpayer money to meddle in a state law that does nothing more than ask a voter to show a photo ID.”