Resurgent Holder pushes new agenda

Holder’s most high-profile project at the moment is comprised of two separate cases that he is taking against the states of Texas and North Carolina.

In these instances, the Justice Department is arguing that laws pertaining to voter ID and early voting have the effect of disadvantaging minority voters and should be struck down. Most observers see the battle as part of a larger war that pits Holder against a Supreme Court decision last year that gutted the Voting Rights Act.

Also last week, Holder urged states to reinstate the rights of felons to vote in a speech at Georgetown University. The attorney general has no power to change those laws but he was emphatic in his argument.

“This isn’t just about fairness for those who are released from prison,” Holder said. “It’s about who we are as a nation. It’s about confronting, with clear eyes and in frank terms, disparities and divisions that are unworthy of the greatest justice system the world has ever known.”