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Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that the Justice Department will dramatically increase its focus on preventing voter suppression by doubling the number of lawyers in the civil rights division, in response to a rash of laws that have made it harder to vote in many states.
“We will use all existing provisions … to ensure that we protect every qualified American seeking to participate in our democracy,” Garland said in a speech Friday afternoon.
Garland compared his action to that taken by former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who said that the Justice Department needed “a lot more lawyers” to combat laws in Southern states that were trying to make it harder for African-Americans to exercise their right to vote. Kennedy led the department from 1961 to 1964.
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