Posted on Jan 17, 2022
Attorney Laura Coates has witnessed the dissolution of voting rights first hand
510
10
2
7
7
0
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/17/ [login to see] /attorney-laura-coates-just-pursuit
As a Department of Justice attorney charged enforcing voting rights during the Obama administration, Laura Coates says she saw countless ways in which the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was being undermined.
"People went to great lengths to try to engage in voter intimidation, whether it meant trying to move polling places to known Klan locations [or] changing or attempting to change the Election Day practices," she says. "Jurisdictions ... would try to advertise their elections on a different day than Election Day on Spanish language [radio] stations."
Coates saw voter rolls being purged, and instances where jurisdictions pretended that widespread voter fraud was taking place. And, she says, it wasn't just happening in Southern states.
"[It was] also in jurisdictions you wouldn't expect," Coates says. "We would investigate places in Washington state and California and Philadelphia, in the Northeast and all through the country. And so the perception that Jim Crow only flew below the Mason-Dixon line when it came to voting rights was actually a fallacy."
As a Department of Justice attorney charged enforcing voting rights during the Obama administration, Laura Coates says she saw countless ways in which the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was being undermined.
"People went to great lengths to try to engage in voter intimidation, whether it meant trying to move polling places to known Klan locations [or] changing or attempting to change the Election Day practices," she says. "Jurisdictions ... would try to advertise their elections on a different day than Election Day on Spanish language [radio] stations."
Coates saw voter rolls being purged, and instances where jurisdictions pretended that widespread voter fraud was taking place. And, she says, it wasn't just happening in Southern states.
"[It was] also in jurisdictions you wouldn't expect," Coates says. "We would investigate places in Washington state and California and Philadelphia, in the Northeast and all through the country. And so the perception that Jim Crow only flew below the Mason-Dixon line when it came to voting rights was actually a fallacy."
Attorney Laura Coates has witnessed the dissolution of voting rights first hand
Posted from npr.org
DOJ
Voting
Elections
George Washington University
Rights
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
3
3
0
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."To make matters worse, it seemed like lobbyists and elected officials at both the state and federal levels would often interfere, rendering investigations futile.
"They would ... put their thumb on the scales in terms of which jurisdictions we looked at [and] which jurisdictions we were proactively investigating," Coates says. "It was frustrating for me to [see] the politics of how we prosecute cases."
Map: See Which States Have Restricted Voter Access, And Which States Have Expanded It
POLITICS
Map: See Which States Have Restricted Voter Access, And Which States Have Expanded It
Coates moved out of the Civil Rights Division and instead became a federal prosecutor. But while she had felt like a hero as an advocate for voting rights, she sometimes wondered if her new position made her a traitor to her people.
"I was viewed as an agent of The Man," she says of her role as a federal prosecutor. "[I was] considered and viewed and conflated with people who, for the public's perception, were against the communities of color, were against Black people, were trying to harm them in some way."
Coates eventually left the DOJ altogether. She now teaches law at George Washington University Law School and is a senior analyst for CNN. Her new memoir is Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor's Fight for Fairness.
Interview highlights
Just Pursuit, by Laura Coates
Simon & Schuster
On feeling called to work for civil rights
I revered the heroes of the civil rights movement, those who are the sung and unsung heroes. ... For me, when I thought about who my heroes were, it was those people who saw an injustice, thought about a way to solve it, took advantage of every different aspect of our government to do so, and advocated for those who didn't have a voice. And for me, I wanted to be and walk in those shadows, in those footsteps, and feel as though I had given back in some small, yet meaningful, way to those who had given so much to me.
On how the dilution of voting rights puts American democracy in peril
Our democracy is in peril every time we claw back the gains of the Voting Rights Act, because we dilute voting power, we dilute voting strength, we undermine the philosophy of one person, one vote, and we pretend that race has no impact — and that in and of itself is a lie.
Laura Coates
Democracy is absolutely in peril, not only because of the Big Lie [that Trump won the 2020 election] that questioned the integrity of our electoral system, but also because it's a lie that jurisdictions were, in fact, believing that there was widespread voter fraud. In many respects, the jurisdictions that have already tried to claw back the Voting Rights Act and have tried to codify different aspects of this lie of widespread voter fraud, they wanted to do it before Donald Trump. They wanted to do it before the 2020 election. They just find it convenient to be able to capitalize on this Big Lie because now it had the platform and gravitas of a sitting president of the United States. But our democracy is in peril every time we claw back the gains of the Voting Rights Act, because we dilute voting power, we dilute voting strength, we undermine the philosophy of one person, one vote, and we pretend that race has no impact — and that in and of itself is a lie.
On being seen as a hero in her community when she was in the voting rights division – and as a traitor when she became a prosecutor in the criminal division
I did not appreciate ... how the two roles were in such stark contrast in terms of public perception. When you are a civil rights advocate and civil rights trial attorney in the Department of Justice, you are presumed the advocate on the side of the people who are most impacted by discrimination.
'Just Mercy' Attorney Asks U.S. To Reckon With Its Racist Past And Present
RACE
'Just Mercy' Attorney Asks U.S. To Reckon With Its Racist Past And Present
As a federal prosecutor ... I noticed from the very beginning the ways in which, when I'd be inside the courtroom, I would see the ways in which people would question my allegiance. Was it to the United States of America? Was it to the Black community? Was it to the Department of Justice? Whose side was I on? And I would often be criticized by my defense counsel counterparts about how somebody who has an interest in civil rights, as a Black woman, how could you be on the side of prosecutors?"...
..."To make matters worse, it seemed like lobbyists and elected officials at both the state and federal levels would often interfere, rendering investigations futile.
"They would ... put their thumb on the scales in terms of which jurisdictions we looked at [and] which jurisdictions we were proactively investigating," Coates says. "It was frustrating for me to [see] the politics of how we prosecute cases."
Map: See Which States Have Restricted Voter Access, And Which States Have Expanded It
POLITICS
Map: See Which States Have Restricted Voter Access, And Which States Have Expanded It
Coates moved out of the Civil Rights Division and instead became a federal prosecutor. But while she had felt like a hero as an advocate for voting rights, she sometimes wondered if her new position made her a traitor to her people.
"I was viewed as an agent of The Man," she says of her role as a federal prosecutor. "[I was] considered and viewed and conflated with people who, for the public's perception, were against the communities of color, were against Black people, were trying to harm them in some way."
Coates eventually left the DOJ altogether. She now teaches law at George Washington University Law School and is a senior analyst for CNN. Her new memoir is Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor's Fight for Fairness.
Interview highlights
Just Pursuit, by Laura Coates
Simon & Schuster
On feeling called to work for civil rights
I revered the heroes of the civil rights movement, those who are the sung and unsung heroes. ... For me, when I thought about who my heroes were, it was those people who saw an injustice, thought about a way to solve it, took advantage of every different aspect of our government to do so, and advocated for those who didn't have a voice. And for me, I wanted to be and walk in those shadows, in those footsteps, and feel as though I had given back in some small, yet meaningful, way to those who had given so much to me.
On how the dilution of voting rights puts American democracy in peril
Our democracy is in peril every time we claw back the gains of the Voting Rights Act, because we dilute voting power, we dilute voting strength, we undermine the philosophy of one person, one vote, and we pretend that race has no impact — and that in and of itself is a lie.
Laura Coates
Democracy is absolutely in peril, not only because of the Big Lie [that Trump won the 2020 election] that questioned the integrity of our electoral system, but also because it's a lie that jurisdictions were, in fact, believing that there was widespread voter fraud. In many respects, the jurisdictions that have already tried to claw back the Voting Rights Act and have tried to codify different aspects of this lie of widespread voter fraud, they wanted to do it before Donald Trump. They wanted to do it before the 2020 election. They just find it convenient to be able to capitalize on this Big Lie because now it had the platform and gravitas of a sitting president of the United States. But our democracy is in peril every time we claw back the gains of the Voting Rights Act, because we dilute voting power, we dilute voting strength, we undermine the philosophy of one person, one vote, and we pretend that race has no impact — and that in and of itself is a lie.
On being seen as a hero in her community when she was in the voting rights division – and as a traitor when she became a prosecutor in the criminal division
I did not appreciate ... how the two roles were in such stark contrast in terms of public perception. When you are a civil rights advocate and civil rights trial attorney in the Department of Justice, you are presumed the advocate on the side of the people who are most impacted by discrimination.
'Just Mercy' Attorney Asks U.S. To Reckon With Its Racist Past And Present
RACE
'Just Mercy' Attorney Asks U.S. To Reckon With Its Racist Past And Present
As a federal prosecutor ... I noticed from the very beginning the ways in which, when I'd be inside the courtroom, I would see the ways in which people would question my allegiance. Was it to the United States of America? Was it to the Black community? Was it to the Department of Justice? Whose side was I on? And I would often be criticized by my defense counsel counterparts about how somebody who has an interest in civil rights, as a Black woman, how could you be on the side of prosecutors?"...
(3)
(0)
0
0
0
Laughable... show a picture ID and you get to vote, those that do not have a picture ID in the 21st Century should not be trusted to pick our leaders!
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google