DoJ Prevents Voting Section Chief from TestifyingThe House Judiciary Committee was set to hold a hearing on the Civil Rights Division’s voting rights section tomorrow, but no more. That’s because the Justice Department has refused to allow the chief of the section, John Tanner, to testify. The committee has postponed the hearing until the Department allows Tanner to appear.
A career employee at the Department, Tanner worked hand in hand with political appointees Bradley Schlozman and Hans von Spakovsky to ensure the passage of voter identification laws in Georgia and elsewhere — sometimes overruling the recommendations of staff analysts and attorneys, who found that the laws might discriminate against African American voters.
Both Schlozman and von Spakovsky endured hard questioning during testimony last month. Tanner would have gotten the same treatment.
Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) wrote to Alberto Gonzales today to request that he make Tanner available for testimony.