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Legal Challenge Mounts Against Trump Administration’s Pre-Election Tactics · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: This what they wrote in The Atlantic yesterday is a
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  Speaker 1: concern for folks across the civil rights litigation community.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: And the Legal Defense Fund actually is part of that lawsuit,
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  Speaker 3: along with the NAACP, because we are so deeply concerned
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  Speaker 3: about what appears to be an end run around the law,
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  Speaker 3: not to have law enforcement at polling sites. So instead
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  Speaker 3: of saying that they're going to be there in a
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  Speaker 3: law enforcement capacity, you have people who are law enforcement
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  Speaker 3: personnel serving as poll monitors. That right there tells you
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  Speaker 3: the desperation that surrounds this election. And we will be
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  Speaker 3: on the ground monitoring those poll monitors if we don't
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  Speaker 3: get the relief that we're seeking in the court. But
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  Speaker 3: we were in the court earlier today, and the government
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  Speaker 3: has said that they are not going to use these
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  Speaker 3: law enforcement personnel. But we need an order from the
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  Speaker 3: court that is enforceable so that we can rest assured
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  Speaker 3: that this will not happen.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm sorry, just one follow up. That means that
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  Speaker 1: if the judge rules that they won't be able to
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  Speaker 1: use the criminal prosecutors?
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  Speaker 4: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
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  Speaker 3: The government the government is saying that they're no longer
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  Speaker 3: going to deploy people from the Bureau of Prisons, people
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  Speaker 3: from ATF. So we've got to have it in writing.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: This is not a game of trust. This is a
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  Speaker 3: game of litigation. And we need an order.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to I'm actually going to defer my little
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  Speaker 2: moment to my colleague here, Luke, because what I want
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  Speaker 2: to say, I want to put at the end because
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  Speaker 2: I want to I want it to be I want
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  Speaker 2: it to be a button point because I want I
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  Speaker 2: want us to really suss through the legal stuff here
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  Speaker 2: that we're now seeing play out in our court system
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  Speaker 2: with more potentially to come. Over the next 24 hours, depending. So, Luke,
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  Speaker 2: I want to.
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  Speaker 5: Ask about the counties where this is happening, because we
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  Speaker 5: can put them up here. I mean, shocker. We're the
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  Speaker 5: counties that we have.
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  Speaker 6: OK, let's go to Florida, Miami-Dade County, Maryland, Prince George's County, Ohio,
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  Speaker 6: Cuyahoga and Medina counties, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Muscogee County, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Virginia,
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  Speaker 6: Virginia Beach, Washington, King County.
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  Speaker 5: What do all those have in common, counselor?
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  Speaker 3: Black people.
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  Speaker 6: Oh, you said that.
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  Speaker 2: Y'all can just keep y'all behind home. Y'all do not
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  Speaker 2: need to come to Prince George's County. There's no need
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  Speaker 2: for y'all to come and bring y'all raggedy behinds up
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  Speaker 2: to Prince George's County.
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  Speaker 1: Sorry, go ahead.
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  Speaker 5: That's where DOJ is going to deploy these election monitors,
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  Speaker 5: and that information is from Democracy Docket. Democratic strongholds with
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  Speaker 5: large minority populations in urban areas. It seems like there
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  Speaker 5: is a targeting of specific people here.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, it's apparent.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 3: It's clear and apparent that black voters suffer from this
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  Speaker 3: particular targeting under the guise of. you know, invented fraud
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  Speaker 3: doesn't exist. The thinking that perhaps this is political or partisan,
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  Speaker 3: but that is not an excuse to target a group
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  Speaker 3: of people who have historically been disenfranchised, who are now
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  Speaker 3: suffering under the The wake of the Calais decision where
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  Speaker 3: lines have literally been drawn to keep black people out
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  Speaker 3: of power. And now we're seeing the targeting in this
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  Speaker 3: election by our federal government deploying law enforcement. The Voting
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  Speaker 3: Rights Act of 1965 has Section 11B in it because
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  Speaker 3: black voters have suffered from intimidation and threats and the
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  Speaker 3: weaponization of government against voting. And that is precisely what
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  Speaker 3: we're seeing resurrected in this election right now in ways
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  Speaker 3: that we haven't seen since Jim Crow. And so that
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  Speaker 3: is why there's so much active litigation. And frankly, the
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  Speaker 3: courts are smacking them back.
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  Speaker 5: You'd think for sure they'd throw a few suburban counties
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  Speaker 5: in there, a few rural counties.
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  Speaker 6: But, you know, this is how they roll.
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  Speaker 1: They've been shouting from the rooftops with a bullhorn this
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  Speaker 1: entire time. Why switch it up now? Well, the Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court decision or not decision, but the Supreme Court rejecting
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  Speaker 1: the Trump administration request to intervene in the California ballot
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  Speaker 1: case we were discussing before we came on air. And
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  Speaker 1: while the order was unsigned, it's my understanding that Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court justices, they each are over a circuit, if you will.
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  Speaker 1: Justice Elena Kagan is over the particular circuit where this
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  Speaker 1: came from. And she is the reason that there's no
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  Speaker 1: more movement on this, I would argue.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, we never know exactly what deliberations were
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  Speaker 3: happening on the court, but I think that it was
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  Speaker 3: certainly fortuitous that it was in the Ninth Circuit.
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  Speaker 2: I just want to say in listening to this, and
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  Speaker 2: I know our audience has been clued in for a
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  Speaker 2: long time, to the points that you both made about
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  Speaker 2: what this administration is doing, why we're in this process,
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  Speaker 2: why these counties across the country. It was because where
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  Speaker 2: black and brown people live. So the racism is real
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  Speaker 2: and it's rife. To your point, Luke, you mean to
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  Speaker 2: tell me these things don't happen if they happen, don't
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  Speaker 2: happen in suburban communities where there's majority white? I can
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  Speaker 2: think of a few places if y'all really want to
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  Speaker 2: get specific. Right. But no, that's not how this works.
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  Speaker 2: What I want to say today and I want you
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  Speaker 2: to respond to the Legal Defense Fund, the NAACP, individuals
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  Speaker 2: like yourself in groups have done yeoman's work. over this
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  Speaker 2: past year to safeguard the institution of voting, to safeguard
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  Speaker 2: the protections and the rights that the American people have.
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  Speaker 2: I just want the American people to know, at this point,
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  Speaker 2: turn it off. Don't worry about ICE or any other DOE, DOJ,
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  Speaker 2: or any other acronym showing up in your neighborhood or
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  Speaker 2: your community. Y'all can bring your raggedy behinds to Prince
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  Speaker 2: George's Canada if you want to. We're still going to vote.
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  Speaker 2: We're still voting. And that's the thing people need to
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  Speaker 2: take away from this moment. What Luke and what Simone
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  Speaker 2: have put on the table are all the things, the
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  Speaker 2: processes and the dynamics that are very important and critical
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  Speaker 2: to safeguard and to backstop. But at the end of
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  Speaker 2: the day, you've got to get your behind up tomorrow morning.
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  Speaker 2: You've got to go pack yourself a lunch, if you
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  Speaker 2: live in a jurisdiction where they penalize you, if you
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  Speaker 2: bring water, just stick it somewhere where they don't see it. Right.
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  Speaker 2: Get a tube, put it in your hat, run it down.
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  Speaker 2: You know, bring a lawn chair and spend the time
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  Speaker 2: to exercise that franchise, because otherwise all the work that
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  Speaker 2: you and others have done will have been in vain.
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  Speaker 3: That's 100 percent correct. If you are dissatisfied with the
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  Speaker 3: state of this country, with the rising tensions, with the
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  Speaker 3: pain points around the economy, if you don't have enough
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  Speaker 3: money in your pocket, if you don't see opportunity for
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  Speaker 3: your children and their children, the opportunity you have is tomorrow,
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  Speaker 3: if you haven't already cast a ballot, to decide one
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  Speaker 3: of the 435 congressional seats, 33 Senate seats. We're talking
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  Speaker 3: about 36 gubernatorial elections, 22 mayoral elections in the top
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  Speaker 3: 100 cities, 2400 prosecutors and sheriff's races. If you don't
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  Speaker 3: like the way law enforcement is acting in your community,
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  Speaker 3: you have an opportunity to do something. If you want
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  Speaker 3: to participate in electing one of the, I think, over
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  Speaker 3: 300 appellate court seats, democracy is on the ballot tomorrow.
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  Speaker 3: And we all have a role to play. And we
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  Speaker 3: have agency. And there should be no fear. We will
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  Speaker 3: have boots on the ground to protect voters. We are
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  Speaker 3: ready to file lawsuits. We are monitoring every polling station
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  Speaker 3: where we are deployed.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, it's Rachel.
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  Speaker 4: I am so glad to see you at the end
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  Speaker 2: Thanks.