The right is relentless. The left needs to be.
Several small stories this morning worth attention.
Lin Wood retired to avoid being disbarred (NBC News):
Lin Wood, a high-profile Georgia lawyer who embraced and promoted former President Donald Trump’s bogus 2020 election claims, told the state bar he was retiring amid disciplinary probes.
“I understand that this request is unqualified, irreversible and permanent,” Wood, 70, said in a letter to the State Bar of Georgia seeking to be transferred to “Retired Status.”
“I further understand and acknowledge that if granted Retired Status I am prohibited from practicing law in this state and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission,” he wrote in the letter, which he posted on his Telegram account.
Jack Smith is looking closely at state-level efforts to muck about with 2020 electors (TPM):
Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed the Arizona secretary of state’s office as recently as May for information related to the unsuccessful lawsuits brought by the Trump campaign and the Arizona Republican Party about supposed errors in the 2020 election. As you’ll recall, Arizona was a hotbed of conspiracy theories tied to the effort to overturn the election after President Biden flipped the longtime Republican stronghold state, leading to Trumpworld outrage, a phony and expensive state election “audit” and the lawsuits.
The previously unreported subpoenas were revealed in a new report by the Arizona Republic Wednesday, which found that Smith’s office also spoke with Republican state lawmakers this spring about events post-2020 election.
[…]
Smith is reportedly interested in documents “related to discovery, proposed exhibits and communications with opposing attorneys,” in the Republic’s words. An outside counsel for the secretary of state’s office reportedly complied with the request from Smith. As the Republic also notes, it’s unclear if Smith’s office has contacted former Republican Gov. Dough Ducey with similar requests. It was Ducey who reportedly silenced his phone when Donald Trump tried to call him while he was certifying the results in the state in 2020.
Florida seems to have a problem “governing within the bounds set by the United States Constitution,” said a federal judge in a small victory against voter suppression (Democracy Docket):
On Monday, July 3, a federal judge temporarily blocked provisions of Florida voter suppression law, Senate Bill 7050, which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in late May.
One of the blocked provisions bars noncitizen volunteers from conducting voter registration activities on behalf of third-party voter registration organizations (3PVROs) — groups that engage in community-based voter registration. The other blocked provision criminalizes routine retention of voter information for any purpose except voter registration, thus making it a felony to maintain voter information for other activities such as get-out-the-vote efforts.
[…]
“This case arises from Florida’s latest assault on the right to vote,” wrote Chief Judge Mark E. Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida at the onset of the order. Walker, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, also struck down the most harmful provisions of Florida’s 2021 voter suppression law, Senate Bill 90, in March 2022. “[T]he challenged provisions exemplify something Florida has struggled with in recent years; namely, governing within the bounds set by the United States Constitution,” he continued.
[…]
Finally, Walker held that the voter information retention ban — which exposes 3PVRO volunteers to criminal prosecution if they violate the provision — is “unconstitutionally vague” because it fails to “provide notice of what is prohibited” and authorizes “arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” Walker added: “The statute’s text is so devoid of meaning that it cannot possibly give people of ordinary intelligence fair notice of what information they are allowed to retain and for what purposes they may do so.”
In a particularly symbolic victory, which came down on the eve of Independence Day, Florida voters prevailed. Walker concluded his order by acknowledging the backdrop against which this voting rights win transpired: “Tomorrow, Floridians across the state will commemorate our Nation’s birthday…And amid these patriotic festivities, some may feel moved, for the first time, to embrace their solemn privilege as citizens by registering to vote…In doing so, they would embody those democratic ideals that, for nearly two hundred forty-seven years, have made our system the envy of the world.”
Having to play Whac-A-Mole with these clowns is tedious. Sadly, the right seems to have endless resources for screwing with democracy. Their lack of faith in the red, white and blue should be disqualifying in the eyes of voters, but isn’t. Not when money is power, and money mixed with unquenchable thirst for more money and more power is a toxic brew that holds the right’s attention long term. Not so on the left.
A recent off-the-record conclave of high-dollar liberal donors a friend attended simply reinforced the impression. Lefty millionaires/billionaires would rather throw money at high-profile personalities than into building political infrastructure for the long term. They’d rather bask in the glow of political stardom so they can brag to their friends. Meantime, the right eats our lunch and we play defense.