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A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon
"Georgia attorney Hans von Spakovsky has been the point person for the Bush administration's national effort to strike as many black and brown voters from the rolls as possible. "
When Ronald Reagan became president back in 1981, he brought with him a novel strategy for eroding, evading or nullifying outright court decisions and federal laws which guaranteed voting rights, job safety, access to the courts, and a clean environment.
Reagan appointed to office executive branch departments chiefs and staffers who'd made their careers opposing the very purpose of those departments. He named anti-labor lawyers to head the Department of Labor, and a timber industry representative to the Department of the Interior. He appointed a black Republican to head the Office of Economic Opportunity, which reviews claims of age and racial discrimination before these are admitted to the courts. This black Reagan appointee actively defied Congress by sitting on thousands of age and race discrimination cases, failing to take action on or investigate them until the statute of limitations rendered the claims invalid. That flagrant partisan lawbreaker's name was Clarence Thomas, and he now sits on the Supreme Court.
In today's Bush Administration, the naming of top agency staff who oppose the core statutory missions of those bodies is standard operating procedure. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has been all but purged of real civil rights lawyers, and replaced with drones from the extreme right-wing Federalist Society. Now the civil rights division of the Justice Department spends its time looking for cases of reverse discrimination against white people, and evidence of so-called anti-Christian bias.
Georgia attorney Hans von Spakovsky has been the point person for the Bush administration's national effort to strike as many black and brown voters from the rolls as possible. Von Spakovsky was a leading architect of the Florida 2000 strategy which unlawfully deprived tens of thousands of black Floridians of the right to vote because their names were similar to those of allegedly convicted felons, including 325 whose felony convictions dates were in the future. Von Spakovsky pressured the Justice Department to OK the Georgia voter ID law recently overturned by a federal judge who likened it to an old fashioned poll tax, an unconstitutional throwback to the late 19th and early 20th century.
In January 2006, Bush appointed von Spakovsky to the FEC, the Federal Elections Commission, which writes and enforces federal election law. The appointment occurred while Congress was in recess, so there were no hearings, and mainstream media silence ensured that the objections of the NAACP, Project VOTE! and other voting rights advocates did not reach many ears.
The president is now poised to appoint von Spakovsky to a full regular term on the Federal Elections Commission. This is a man who has made his career cutting corners legal and illegal, using old and creating new laws, loopholes and regulations to
gradually roll back the voting rights of African Americans and other minorities. Only US Senators may vote on this nomination. Please visit www.colorofchange.org and use their page to contact your US Senators. Let them know in no uncertain terms that they must oppose the confirmation of this man to oversee the national electoral process.
And after you do that, remember that two US Senators are running for president. It should be the obligation of Senator Obama of Illinois and Senator Clinton of New York, as leaders or serious wannabes, not just to be one of the Democratic crowd that shows up to cast a vote against this despicable man, but to stand up and act like leaders, to speak out against his past work and all he stands for, loudly, eloquently, and NOW, or to forfeit any claim to national leadership or the automatic allegiance of black America. Call or email Barack and Hillary. Remind them that leaders lead. They don't just show up to vote.
For more information on protecting your right to vote, visit colorofchange.org, projectvote.org. or the National Campaign for Fair Elections.
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Dr. Jemima Pierre is a professor in the African American Studies and Anthropology Departments at UCLA.
Johanna Miller is Director of Education Policy at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
