Monday, August 8, 2016

Crusade of Democratic Superlawyer Against Voting Laws


Robert Barnes, a Washington Post Reporter and Editor since 1987, and has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006, wrote this article.

After a lopsided string of court victories knocking down State Voting Restrictions, Democratic superlawyer Marc E. Elias was literally flying high last week in his pursuit of other ­Republican-initiated Voting laws he says hurt his Party’s most loyal constituencies.

Elias’s entrance into Voting Rights protection is something new. While Elias will not discuss the funding for his project, Soros’s spokesman Michael Vachon said Elias approached them with a set of proposals for challenging state restrictions that would be helpful “up and down the ballot.”

That was appealing to Soros, who began his political giving with Voter Mobilization efforts, Vachon said. And they agreed with Elias that there was work to be done beyond what the Civil Rights groups, to which Soros also contributes, were doing.

“The other groups have to be nonpartisan,” Vachon said. “We agreed there was a need to look at this from a partisan viewpoint.”

Soros has given $5 million to the trust that funds the litigation, Vachon said, and Elias said he has picked his shots with an eye toward “protecting the Obama coalition” of African Americans, Latinos and young people.

“Some in the voting rights community expressed concern when he came into these voting cases that he could establish some bad precedent,” said Richard Hasen, a Professor at the University of California at Irvine, whose Election Law Blog serves as something of a bulletin board for election lawyers. “He’s done well so far, however, and with the changing balance of power on the courts, he may well have continuing success in at least some of his cases.”

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