Civil legal rights groups sue Ga over new voting legislation

Civil rights teams on Tuesday explained they have sued the condition of Ga around variations to voting rules enacted last week that they reported make it more challenging for all Georgia citizens to vote, specially people of color.

In a joint press launch Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Lawful Defense and Instructional Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Middle and legislation companies in the condition stated that the regulation was a direct response to the 2020 presidential election and Senate runoff election, exactly where the condition experienced file voter turnout and Democrats gained the point out. The groups are suing in federal court docket on behalf of a church and other community teams.

“The elections were celebrated not just for their turnout, but also for their integrity, with Ga officials praising them as safe and secure,” the launch explained. “But fairly than act to broaden participation in the political system, Ga leaders responded by executing what they have carried out quite a few periods in the state’s background: they positioned burdensome, unjustified, and unwanted restrictions on voters, especially voters of color and other traditionally disenfranchised communities.”

Sophia Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Legal rights Project, pinned the motives of the regulation on race.

“This legislation is driven by blatant racism, represents politics at its really worst, and is plainly unlawful,” Lakin stated in the statement. “We urge the court to act quickly to strike it down.”

Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp defended the law from criticism last 7 days, indicating that critics — such as President Joe Biden — hadn’t browse the legislation.

“This monthly bill expands voting access, streamlines vote-counting strategies, and guarantees election integrity,” Kemp said in a tweeted assertion. There is very little ‘Jim Crow’ about requiring a photograph or point out-issued ID to vote by absentee ballot — each and every Ga voter have to now do so when voting in-particular person.”

Biden termed the law an “atrocity” when speaking to reporters very last 7 days. In a assertion Friday, he likened it to “Jim Crow” laws and identified as on Congress to move a Democratic-supported federal measure to safeguard voting rights.

“This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century. It ought to conclude. We have a moral and Constitutional obligation to act. I after once more urge Congress to move the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Legal rights Advancement Act to make it easier for all eligible Americans access the ballot box and avoid attacks on the sacred ideal to vote,” he stated in the statement.

Distinguished Ga voting rights activist and previous gubernatorial applicant Stacey Abrams produced a assertion about the legislation shortly right after it was passed last week.

“Each business enterprise, political, and civic leader ought to stand up and make their opposition to these determined anti-democratic guidelines obvious,” Abrams mentioned. “At a time when Ga ranks as the worst condition for COVID vaccination fees, Ga Republicans alternatively are singularly focused on reviving Georgia’s dim earlier of racist voting guidelines.”

ABC News’ Quinn Scanlan contributed to this report.