How the Left wages lawfare
The Trump-deranged Left is throwing everything they can at Republicans to see what sticks.
No one is immune, even if you’re the world’s richest man. Elon Musk is now the subject of bogus partisan lawsuits in Pennsylvania simply for exercising his right to support Trump.
Perhaps the sneakiest part of the Left’s broader lawfare strategy was kicked off in a little-noticed civil case in New Hampshire federal court. The left-wing League of Women Voters and their allies have weaponized the Voting Rights Act (VRA), filing a civil lawsuit against the Democratic political vendor (who dared support Biden’s short-lived primary opponent Dean Phillips) for creating robocalls that discouraged voters from wasting their vote in the 2024 New Hampshire primary and using an AI-generated audio of Joe Biden’s voice. And the lawsuit targeted the telecom providers that carried the message -- which they likely never heard -- from the vendor to the recipients.
Section 11(b) of the VRA is clear: It is a crime to stand outside polling places and threaten violence to stop people from voting, and the federal government can prosecute for doing so. And we all know why: Democrats would stand outside of polling places with bats to keep black Americans from voting, and local Democratic officials were happy to have them do so.
Now, the same Democrat Party that supported slavery, Jim Crow, Apartheid, and the Ku Klux Klan is making the argument that VRA Section 11(b) contains a private right of action (it doesn’t) against non-threatening communications they deem false (it doesn’t). This would allow private actors -- not government prosecutors -- to invoke the law not just against candidates and political vendors, but against technology companies and social media platforms over content.
It is a nonsense position completely unsupported by the law, but that didn’t stop the Biden-Harris Justice Department from filing a statement of interest supporting the nonsense. This lays the foundation for a well-funded activist army of lawyers to sue any provider over virtually any political message -- a threat that could drive tech companies out of the business of political communications.
And it’s not just in New Hampshire, where the bomb was dropped this summer. The Left used the same argument just weeks ago in Alabama, in part to ensure illegal aliens can vote in American elections.
But, despite the unlawful lawyering of the Biden-Harris DoJ to support the Left’s latest legal shenanigans, the VRA’s private right of action doesn’t actually exist. Nor do the Left’s claims of “misinformation” make them that. But, if alleged misinformation is treated as a “threat,” the real threat will be to our rights to free speech and free association.
The Left can be checked, but it requires immense time, effort, and legal expertise. The Coolidge Reagan Foundation filed an amicus brief to debunk leftist lawfare, and the New Hampshire court on the case has now twice rejected the Left’s arguments. In Alabama, where the Foundation also stepped up, illegal aliens may still be able to vote (thanks, Kamala), but the Left didn’t gain a single inch on their use of VRA Section 11(b). These are hard-fought victories that highlight this is no time for complacency. The Left is taking their lawfare strategy to unprecedented heights, and conservatives cannot be caught flat-footed like in 2020.
One of the Left’s end goals? Legalize voting for millions of illegal immigrants to tilt the scales in Democrats’ favor. Earlier this month, the state of Florida sued the Biden administration after the federal government refused to verify immigration records to purge non-citizens from voter rolls leading up to Election Day. The self-described defenders of democracy -- Biden and Harris -- have provided no assistance to state governments in maintaining accurate, current voter registration records that are the basic building blocks of any democracy. When Florida’s Department of State identified various individuals for whom it had evidence they were not citizens, the Department of Homeland Security failed to confirm their citizenship.
There is nothing more un-American than rewarding illegal immigrants for breaking the law and choosing criminals over law-abiding U.S. citizens. It would change America for the worse and forever. But the Left’s un-American assault on border security, free speech, and other values can still be checked.
The true defenders of democracy -- those of us who are actually pro-America -- need to realize that the war against the radical Left must be fought on all fronts. From law to media to the ballot box, the Left will only be defeated if Americans are unrelenting in their defense of basic American values. The only response for the good guys is to fight, fight, fight.
Dan Backer is a veteran campaign counsel, having served more than 100 candidates and political action committees, overseeing more than $150 million in political spending over the past decade. He practices law as a member of Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Kaufman LLC.
Image: Tim Evanson