Report -- Judge Unimpressed by Obama DOJ's Dive On Non-Citizen Voting

From Powerline Blog:

The judge, Richard Leon, didn’t issue a ruling. According to Gerstein, however, he “sounded skeptical about [the] request. . .to block a federal official’s decision to embrace requirements in three states that new voters submit proof that they’re U.S. citizens.” “The thrust” of Leon’s questions to the lawyers “hinted that he was inclined against granting the order,” Gerstein says.

Judge Leon also seemed taken aback that the Justice Department is not opposing the plaintiffs’ motion to enjoin the government. Leon called it “unprecedented” for DOJ to agree to a preliminary injunction blocking a federal official’s decision. “I’ve never heard of it in all my years as a lawyer,” the judge stated.

The same statement applies, I think, to any number of actions and positions taken by the Obama Justice Department under both Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.

With DOJ taking the plaintiffs’ side, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach took the lead in defending the proof of citizenship requirement imposed by his state. He also raised the conflict of interest argument (discussed in my earlier post) that stems from allegations that the Justice Department ghost wrote the original ECA decision, which went in favor of the leftist civil rights plaintiffs.

Kobach relied on a statement by ECA’s current executive director and one of its commissioners that DOJ was so involved in writing that 2014 decision that the department had a conflict of interest in deciding whether to defend ECA’s subsequent and contrary action.

Nice to see that a Judge is actually doing his job.