Monday, June 15, 2020

Trump & New Guy: Ready to Fix, Rig, Interfere, or Just Foul Up the 2020 Election

Trump's New Guy: Attorney William Consovoy
(Well versed on voter suppression, etc.)

2020 Voting turmoil brewing with this story and the headline:
The Rising Trump Lawyer Battling to Reshape
the Electorate

In the summer of 2013, a young lawyer named William Consovoy appeared on a Brookings Institution panel to discuss his leading role in a recently decided voting-rights case. 
Just days earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled that certain states, particularly in the South, would no longer need DOJ approval before redrawing districts, moving polling places, or making other electoral changes (see reference of that case below).
Consovoy said:From my perspective this is what I would call a modest decision by the court.”
In fact, it was a watershed moment. It dealt with the high court's declaration that some of the central protections enshrined in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (from History.com link), an epochal piece of civil rights legislation, had largely outlived its usefulness.
That ruling, in the case of Shelby County v. Holder (Brennan Center at NYC article), has further emboldened a Republican-led movement that has inspired a new wave of voting laws that: (1) create stringent identification requirements, (2) bring broad purges of voter rolls, and (3) shutter thousands of polling places, particularly minority neighborhoods in stated like Georgia that we saw recently – which was the site of a totally chaotic primary election. 
That campaign has only intensified as Trump and his party, invoking the specter of rampant voter fraud (right on cue), are seeking to limit who can vote.
A leading legal champion of this effort has been William Consovoy (age 45), now a Trump lawyer with an affinity for some of the most divisive culture-wars legal disputes. 
He and his firm have argued against affirmative action at Harvard and for virtually outlawing abortion in Georgia. 
His work for Trump has centered on the president’s efforts, now before the Supreme Court, to keep his tax returns private.
In the course that Consovoy famously claimed that the president could not be prosecuted while in office, even for shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue. 
But it is his work on voting cases across the country that is drawing increasing attention in this presidential election year roiled by pandemic and protest.
In recent weeks, his firm, Consovoy-McCarthy (1) has fought against extending the deadline for mail-in voting in Wisconsin, (2) sought to thwart felons from being re-enfranchised in Florida, and (3) sued to block California’s plan to send absentee ballots to all registered voters.
The whole very detailed story continues at the link - truly worth reading.
My 2 cents: Consovoy appears to me to be a potentially very dangerous man in power along side Trump and with is ear and apparently same line of thought about elections (e.g., that they are rigged, have too many illegals voting, that mail-in voting is corrupt, and more ID checks and voter roll purging is needed to stop voter fraud run amok (which BTW is totally false — seen here and most-recently here on mail-in voting).
Whew boy – think 2020 will be rigged (Trump says by the DEMS), or now by Trump and his new hatchet man, William Consovoy?
Well those two might outta peek in the mirror and say that out loud 100 times – then you will see the cause and source of any voter hanky-panky this upcoming cycle.
But know this you two, Americans are a lot wiser and alert than you both know or give us credit for. So you might think about hunkering down because we will not a let you steal or influence this election in any shape, form, or fashion. All that matters is that entire process is fair, open, honest, and on our terms and NOT yours.
Thanks for stopping by.

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