DOJ Civil: Progressives Should Pay Attention To The Actions Of This Powerful Litigating Division

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. 

If you search for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Google, you’ll find an overwhelming majority of search results are for the Civil Rights Division. That’s unsurprising — the average person is typically more aware of the Civil Rights Division’s work. And it makes sense: As the “crown jewel” of the DOJ, the division performs the crucial work of enforcing the laws that prohibit discrimination. 

But progressives and activists should be tuned into both the work of the Civil Rights Division and the Civil Division, the latter of which has just as much potential to align with progressive priorities, like holding corporations accountable. Civil enforcement actions play a significant role in the DOJ’s larger corporate enforcement efforts. Progressives have justifiably pushed for a civil rights-minded attorney general, an empowered Civil Rights Division, and a whole-of-government approach to civil rights. The sweeping litigation responsibilities of the Civil Division often slip under the radar — but they’re just as relevant to the public interest.

Case in point: two recent lawsuits against Texas. While the Civil Rights Division is handling the lawsuit against Texas for its discriminatory electoral maps, the Civil Division is handling the lawsuit against Texas for its novel abortion ban

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COVID Notes #10

THIS IS ONE OF the most interesting Twitter threads I’ve read in some time. I’m sure it’s gotten lots of discussion in specialist circles. But it hasn’t been much a part of the general news coverage of COVID. Basically new strains of the flu tend to evolve from recent dominant strains. So people build up an immunity to the Flu A that was big last year and Flu A evolves into Flu B that might get a lot of people sick two or three years in the future. But COVID isn’t working that way, at least not so far. Omicron didn’t evolve from Delta. And Delta didn’t evolve from the Alpha, Beta or Gamma lineages, says Adam Kucharski.

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Court Tosses Alabama GOP’s New District Map Because It Crammed Black Voting Power Into Just One District

A panel of three federal judges rejected the new Alabama district map drawn by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature on Monday in two lawsuits against Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) alleging that the district lines had been racially gerrymandered.

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Is Trump’s Grip Loosening?

Our most consistent failure of perception is the tendency to project the realities or trends of the present indefinitely out into the future — like with ex-President Trump. Most of us assume that the 2024 GOP nomination is Trump’s for the taking if he decides to run and that he will run. That’s still the best assumption and it’s my assumption. But over recent weeks and with a burst of commentary in recent days it’s no longer the only assumption. There are at least some cracks — seeming cracks? — in Trump’s hold and they center for now on Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

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Red-Blooded Patriot And Senate Candidate JD Vance Calls America ‘A Joke’

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

A Solid Campaign Strategy

The hillbilly elegist’s latest attempt to out-Trump his Ohio Senate race rivals led to a spectacular belly flop in an interview with Spectrum News published on Monday.

  • While trying to defend his joke about the deadly shooting incident with actor Alec Baldwin, Vance made the argument that politicians should have a sense of humor because “unfortunately, our country’s kind of a joke.” 
  • Vance declared that he refuses to be one of those “fake politicians” who doesn’t joke about things like people getting fatally shot.
  • Joke’s on him.

Alabama GOP-Drawn District Map Gets Struck Down

A federal court threw out Alabama’s new congressional district map on Monday because it allows only one district to have a majority of Black voters.

  • The district lines needs to be redrawn to include two of those districts, the court ordered. If the court’s decision prevails on appeal, Democrats are likely to gain a second seat in Alabama.
  • The Republican-controlled state legislature has 14 days to draw a new map that has “two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it,” the court said.
  • This is the second time a state’s newly drawn district map has been quashed by the courts due to gerrymandering. The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the map from the state’s GOP-dominated redistricting commission less than two weeks ago.

8,500 US Troops Put On High Alert For Possible Ukraine Deployment

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered those troops to prepare to potentially get sent to Eastern Europe if Russia invades Ukraine, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. Read TPM reporter Josh Kovensky’s report on Ukraine urging its allies to please chill out.

Anti-CRT Boogeyman Gets Professor’s Civil Rights Lecture Canceled

A Florida history professor was slated to give a presentation on the civil rights movement in front of the state’s Osceola County School District teachers on Saturday — then the school district canceled the event due to Florida Republicans’ hysteria over “critical race theory.”  

  • The school district superintendent told the teachers in an email that the professor’s lecture needed to be reviewed by the district “in light of the current conversations across our state and in our community about critical race theory.”
  • The professor’s presentation didn’t mention critical race theory or even systemic racism, NBC News reports.
  • The cancellation came less than 24 hours after a GOP-controlled Florida Senate committee approved legislation banning race-related discussions that makes white people feel “discomfort.”

Dems Take Over New York Redistricting

The Democrat-controlled New York legislature will steer the process of drawing the Empire State’s new district lines after negotiations in the bipartisan redistricting commission fell apart on Monday. New York Democrats could wipe out as many as five GOP-held seats in the state as they create the new map.

House Ethics Panel Investigates Two Lawmakers

Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Marie Newman (D-IL) are being investigated by the House Committee on Ethics for potential misuse of official resources and potentially bribing a primary rival with a job, respectively. Both lawmakers deny the allegations.

Biden Spanks Fox News Reporter

There’s almost no way y’all missed this, but in case you did: The President flat-out called Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch” during his press briefing yesterday (which got included in the official White House transcript).

The disgust for Doocy seems to be bipartisan:

Must Read

“​​The school shooting generation grows up” – Vox

Embattled Sheldon Silver Dies

The former New York Assembly Speaker died at age 77 on Monday while serving his prison sentence for corruption.

Hospital Tries To Force Departing Workers To Stay Via Court Battle

On Monday, a hospital in Wisconsin lost its lawsuit attempting to force seven employees — who had quit for another hospital — to stay until their replacements could be found. Those employees were supposed to begin on Monday, but were prevented from doing so by the judge before the trial, according to the Post-Crescent.

Idaho GOP Candidate Buys FB Ads To Complain About ‘Zuck Bucks’

A Republican hopeful in Idaho’s secretary of state election, state Sen. Mary Souza (R), has shelled out $1,400 for Facebook ads in which she attacks Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg over his nationwide 2020 election administration grants.

The Right-Wing Cesspit

Please stick to your day job, Laura.

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Biden Mutters ‘Stupid Son Of A B*tch’ At Fox News’ Peter Doocy In Hot Mic Moment

President Biden on Monday was caught on a hot mic calling a Fox News reporter a “stupid son of a bitch” after being asked about inflation.

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Russian Invasion Talk Mounts. Ukrainian Officials Urge Everyone To Please Calm Down.

A key Ukrainian national security official sat down today and told the country’s allies what they could do to help: please, calm down.

But also: Keep the weapons coming.

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Where Things Stand: Cheney Isn’t Entertaining Newt’s Call For Her (And Others) To Be Jailed

The only two Republicans on the Jan. 6 Committee have responded to calls made by a member of their own party — Newt Gingrich — suggesting that they, and the rest of the panel, should be jailed for the committee’s investigative work.

At this point, it’s par for the course for Gingrich to traffic in Trumpian outrage, as Josh Marshall outlined here. But it’s also an illustration of the Republican Party’s ongoing divide and the ways in which the party as a whole has responded to the bombastic individual who commandeered it for his own ends.

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Georgia County Judges Grant DA Request For Special Grand Jury In Trump Election Steal Probe

A request by Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for a special grant jury in her election interference probe into former President Trump was granted by a panel of county judges on Monday.

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