Justice Department to sue Georgia over sweeping voting restrictions

The US Department of Justice will sue the state of Georgia over the passage of an elections law with far-reaching restrictions on voting, marking the first major challenge under President Joe Biden against a nationwide voter suppression campaign in Republican-dominated state legislatures.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is set to announce the federal government’s legal challenge on 25 June, after he pledged to scrutinise new elections laws in at least 14 states and double the staff in his civil rights division.

The lawsuit will carried by civil rights chief Kristen Clarke and associate attorney general Vanita Gupta, two recently appointed Justice Department officials with long careers in civil rights litigation.

In remarks on 11 June recommitting the agency to protecting the Voting Rights Act and other measures to combat discrimination at the polls, the attorney general criticised the false narrative fuelling partisan “audits” of 2020 election results and the dozens of bills filed in its wake, as Republican lawmakers validate Donald Trump’s “stolen election” myth with nearly 400 pieces of legislation aimed at limiting access to the ballot, and disproportionately targeting voters of colour.

“Justifications proffered in support of post-election audits and restrictions on voting have relied on allegations of voting fraud in the 2020 election that have been refuted by … every court, federal and state, that has considered them,” Mr Garland said.

At least 22 new laws have made voting more difficult in more than a dozen states, though changes to states’ election laws are “not calibrated to address the kinds of voting fraud addressed in their allegations,” he said.

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