Christopher Coates

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Christopher Coates

Why South Carolina's Voter ID Suit Could Be Bound For The Supreme Court

Ryan J. Reilly | February 8, 2012, 6:05AM

Paul Clement is the former Solicitor General of the United States and the guy conservatives go to when there's a Supreme Court case on the line.

So it's not surprising that it was Clement's signature that ended up on the complaint filed on behalf of the state of South Carolina this week, in a suit against Attorney General Eric Holder over DOJ's decision to block the state's voter ID law because of the disparate impact the state's numbers show it will have on minority voters.

It's a suit that supporters hope will not only enshrine South Carolina's voter ID requirement as the unquestioned law of the state, but that will also do away with federal restrictions placed on states like South Carolina because of their clear history of racial discrimination.

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Topics: Christopher Coates, DOJ Civil Rights Division, Justice Department, Paul Clement, South Carolina, Texas, Voting Rights Act

Lawyer Defending South Carolina's Voter ID Law Thinks DOJ Is Biased Against White People

Ryan J. Reilly | January 11, 2012, 5:53AM

Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC)

Updated: Jan. 11, 11:45AM

South Carolina officials plan to file suit against the federal government because the Justice Department stopped the state from implementing a voter ID law that the state's own statistics showed would have a disparate impact on non-white voters. Fighting on their behalf will be a former DOJ official who claimed that the Civil Rights Division is opposed to protecting the civil rights of whites and who defended the Bush-era politicalization of the division by Bradley Schlozman as an effort to "diversify."

South Carolina has hired former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates, who defied DOJ's instructions and testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights during the Republican-led probe into the infamous New Black Panther Party case, a spokesman for the South Carolina attorney general's office told The State newspaper.

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Topics: Christopher Coates, New Black Panthers, Paul Clement, Section 5, Voter Identification, Voter suppression, Voting, Voting Rights Act, voter fraud, voter intimidation

Commission On Civil Rights

Civil Rights Commission Chalks Ups Bush DOJ Illegal Hiring To 'Ideological Conflict'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 28, 2010, 3:48PM

J. Christian Adams and Christopher Coates

During the Bush administration, political leadership of the Civil Rights Division illegally made career hiring decisions based on ideology, a Justice Department report concluded. Bradley Schlozman was found to have violated federal law, referring to attorneys in the Voting Section as "mold spores," and hiring conservatives he dubbed "good Americans."

But in a draft of a report they will vote on tomorrow, the conservative-controlled U.S. Commission on Civil Rights -- which didn't seem to take an interest in those allegations a few years ago -- chalks those violations of law up to "ideological conflict."

If the press cared so much about the politicization that took place during the Bush administration, the report says, then reporters should be all over over the allegations against the Obama administration made by two individuals with ties to that politicization.

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Topics: Christopher Coates, Commission On Civil Rights, DOJ Civil Rights Division, DOJ Office Of The Inspector General, DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, J. Christian Adams, Justice Department, New Black Panthers

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Former DOJ Lawyer Objects To Bush-Era Voting Section Chief's Testimony

Ryan J. Reilly | October 19, 2010, 12:22PM

Christopher Coates

A former Justice Department lawyer, Robert Kengle, has written the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to object to the testimony of the former head of the Voting Section, Christopher Coates. Coates accused Kengle of being leery of the Bush-era Noxubee, Miss. voter intimidation case, which was the first time that the federal government used the 1965 Voting Rights Act to allege racial discrimination against whites.

As Adam Serwer reports, Kengle wrote the conservative-controlled U.S. Commission on Civil Rights with his complaint. The Commission is examining the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act as part of their inquiry into DOJ's handling of the voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party.

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Topics: Bradley Schlozman, Christopher Coates, Civil Rights Commission, Civil Rights Division, Civil Rights Division Voting Section, Hans von Spakovsky, Joe Rich, New Black Panthers, Robert Kengle, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Conservatives' Draft Letter: DOJ Hostile To 'Race-Neutral' Civil Rights Enforcement (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 7, 2010, 4:48PM

Todd Gaziano

The conservative block of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has prepared two letters to Attorney General Eric Holder, one of which charges that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is hostile to the "race-neutral enforcement of the civil rights laws."

While the conservative-dominated Commission's original goal for their 2010 Enforcement Report was to only focus on the Justice Department's handling of the civil voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party, they have now expanded the report they are preparing to focus on the "culture" within the Civil Rights Division.

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Topics: Bradley Schlozman, Christopher Coates, Civil Rights Commission, Civil Rights Division, Civil Rights Division Voting Section, J. Christian Adams, Justice Department, New Black Panthers, Todd Gaziano, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Civil Rights Division

DOJ: New Black Panther Investigation 'Thin On Facts' But 'Thick On Rhetoric'

Ryan J. Reilly | September 24, 2010, 3:25PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

A Justice Department spokeswoman is hitting back at allegations made today at a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights hearing on the New Black Panther Party Case that the department is politicizing the enforcement of voting rights laws.

"[T]his so-called investigation is thin on facts and evidence and thick on rhetoric," Tracy Schmaler, a DOJ spokeswoman told TPMMuckraker in an e-mail. She added it was important to place Coates' testimony in the context of the "politicization that occurred in the Civil Rights Division in the previous administration."

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Topics: Christopher Coates, Civil Rights Commission, Civil Rights Division, Civil Rights Division Voting Section, Justice Department, Tracy Schmaler, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Civil Rights Commission

Bush-Era Voting Section Chief: DOJ Biased Against White People

Ryan J. Reilly | September 24, 2010, 12:32PM

Christopher Coates

The former chief of the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division says it was a "travesty on justice" for the DOJ not to allow attorneys to fully pursue a civil case against members of the New Black Panther Party.

Christopher Coates, now an assistant U.S. attorney in South Carolina, testified Friday at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights hearing on the handling of the New Black Panther Party case. The conservative-dominated commission is preparing a report on how the DOJ handled the case and whether officials pursue the race-neutral enforcement of voting laws.

In his prepared testimony, Coates says there is a "hostility in the Civil Rights Division (CRD) and Voting Section toward the equal enforcement of some of the federal voting laws."

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Topics: Bradley Schlozman, Christopher Coates, Civil Rights Commission, Civil Rights Division, Civil Rights Division Voting Section, Commission On Civil Rights, Hans von Spakovsky, J. Christian Adams, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

New Black Panthers

Former Voting Chief Set To Testify As Conservatives Wrap Up New Black Panthers Report

Ryan J. Reilly | September 24, 2010, 9:55AM

Tom Perez, J. Christian Adams, and Christopher Coates

It's been 689 days since two men affiliated with a fringe group called the New Black Panther Party, one of them carrying a nightstick, stood outside of the a polling place dressed in military garb in an overwhelmingly African-American community in Philadelphia.

The conservative majority of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights had been prepared today to approve a report that observers expected would blast the Obama administration for the decision to drop the civil case against all but one of defendants, which was brought in the waning days of the Bush administration.

But mid-afternoon Wednesday, the former chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division who signed off on the case, Chris Coates, sent this letter to the commission chairman stating that -- in defiance of the Justice Department's order -- he would like to appear before the panel.