Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School and self-described “liberal,” explained Saturday how the Justice Department’s decision to sue Georgia over its voting law will backfire on President Joe Biden and Democrats.
What is the background?
The Justice Department announced Friday that it filed a lawsuit against Georgia over the recently enacted voting reform law that Republican lawmakers said boosts election integrity. The law was the subject of dishonest attacks from the media and Democrats, who compared the law to Jim Crow.
The Justice Department repeated claims from Democrats that Georgia’s law purposefully abridges voting rights of black people.
“The United States’ complaint contends that several provisions of Senate Bill 202 were adopted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race. The Justice Department’s lawsuit alleges that the cumulative and discriminatory effect of these laws—particularly on Black voters—was known to lawmakers and that lawmakers adopted the law despite this,” the DOJ stated.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) pushed back against the DOJ’s claims, calling them outright lies.
“This lawsuit is born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start,” Kemp said in a statement. “Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and their allies tried to force an unconstitutional elections power grab through Congress — and failed. Now, they are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy.”
What did Turley say?
Speaking on “Fox and Friends,” Turley predicted the Biden administration “may ultimately regret” its legal challenge of Georgia’s law.
“I’m highly skeptical and I think they may ultimately regret this move. It could indeed clarify this issue in a way the Biden administration does not want,” Turley said. “This is a very dubious case in my view because the Georgia law has great overlap with other states, like Delaware.”
In fact, Turley explained the lawsuit likely will result in the correction of mischaracterizations of the law, including those that Biden repeated likening the law to Jim Crow.
Ultimately, Turley suggested the federal government may lose its lawsuit on constitutional grounds.
“One of the issues that the court may ultimately amplify is that elections were left in the Constitution to the state. Alexander Hamilton actually wrote in the federalist papers imagine if the federal government was to take over the management of elections and he basically said we would all object,” Turley explained. “Well, that’s what’s happening now in Congress they are trying to essentially federalize elections and I think they are going to have a serious pushback on this lawsuit.”