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James Freedland, ACLU, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org
Tia T. Gordon, Advancement Project, (202) 728-9557 or (202) 906-0149
Today,
Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union and Pepper
Hamilton LLP filed a motion on behalf of Lisa A. Blehm - a Michigan
resident who was improperly disenfranchised in the November election -
that would allow her to join a previously filed voting rights lawsuit
challenging the state's unlawful voter purge programs. The motion was
filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
against Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, Michigan Bureau of
Elections Director Christopher M. Thomas and Standish City Clerk
Rebecca Lakin.
In September 2008, Blehm's attorneys
filed a lawsuit on behalf of the United States Student Association
Foundation, the ACLU, the ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan State
Conference of NAACP Branches challenging two statewide voter purge
programs that unlawfully remove thousands of Michigan voters per year
from the rolls. Blehm became a victim of one of those programs, which
immediately cancels the voter registrations of Michigan voters who
obtain driver's licenses in other states, without issuing the
appropriate confirmation of registration notices and following the
other voter removal procedures required by the National Voter
Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
After registering to vote in 2006
using her home address in Standish, Michigan, Blehm temporarily
relocated to Georgia in 2007 to join her husband, a Marine who had been
temporarily deployed there. While in Georgia, Blehm obtained a driver's
license, but specifically declined to register to vote in the state
because she fully intended to maintain her permanent residency and
voting status in Standish. Around June 2008, after her husband's
assignment in Georgia was complete, Blehm and her husband returned to
their home and permanent residence in Michigan.
Then on November 4, 2008, Blehm went
to her assigned polling place at Standish City Hall to vote, only to be
refused by a poll worker, who told her that she was not registered to
vote and would not be able to vote in the election. In addition,
despite the explicit requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act
of 2002 (HAVA) and the Michigan Election Law, the poll worker did not
offer Blehm the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot.
"Lisa's story is a prime example of
how Michigan's unlawful purging programs have devastating real-world
consequences," said Bradley Heard, senior attorney with Advancement
Project. "The state and city election officials' actions in this case
are blatant violations of the NVRA and HAVA, and those officials should
be held accountable for those actions by the courts."
Michigan Bureau of Elections
Director Thomas admitted in the lawsuit that approximately 72,000
voters a year are purged in the same manner as Blehm. And in October
2008, U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III ruled that this voter
removal program violated the NVRA. Nevertheless, the state refused to
restore Blehm and the other affected voters to the rolls in advance of
the presidential election.
"Although election officials broke
the law when they denied Lisa Blehm the right to vote, we are hopeful
that the courts will put an end to misguided attempts at
disenfranchising lawful registered voters so this doesn't happen in the
future," said Meredith Bell-Platts, staff counsel with the ACLU Voting
Rights Project. "The fundamental right of every eligible voter to
participate in the electoral process is sacred and must be protected
from the whims of partisan politicians. It's tragic that election
officials must be reminded that adhering to the Constitution and
following federal law are not optional."
Attorneys in today's filing are
Heard of Advancement Project; Bell-Platts of the ACLU Voting Rights
Project; Michael Steinberg and Kary Moss of the ACLU of Michigan; and
Matthew J. Lund, Mary K. Deon and Deborah Kovsky-Apap of Pepper
Hamilton LLP.
Legal documents in this case, including today's motion, are available at: www.aclu.org/votingrights/gen/36838res20080917.html
More information on the ACLU Voting Rights Project is available at: www.votingrights.org
More information on Advancement Project is available at: www.advancementproject.org
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666
"The window of opportunity to deliver assistance is now, today, not tomorrow," said the deputy director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
A top official at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday that food availability across Gaza has reached "an all-time low" under Israel's suffocating blockade, which has heavily restricted the entrance of lifesaving humanitarian assistance and plunged the enclave into famine.
"Food supply has sharply deteriorated," FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol said at a conference in Cairo, Egypt. "The window of opportunity to deliver assistance is now, today, not tomorrow. Food, medicine, and fuel are self-evident priorities, but we must also prioritize the ability to grow food locally where it is needed most to ensure survival."
Bechdol's grim assessment came weeks after the Biden administration pressured Israel to improve conditions on the ground in Gaza, which has been utterly devastated by more than a year of bombing.
Aid organizations say that far from improving, Gaza's humanitarian crisis has only gotten worse since the Biden administration threatened to cut off the supply of U.S. weapons to Israel. Last month, the U.S. effectively dropped its pressure campaign by concluding that Israel was not violating international law by blocking American humanitarian assistance.
Most of Gaza's population is currently experiencing "high levels of food insecurity," according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) figures, and the "risk of Famine persists across the whole Gaza Strip."
"The catastrophe in Gaza is nothing short of a complete breakdown of our common humanity. The nightmare must stop."
In addition to obstructing aid deliveries, Israeli forces have decimated Gaza's agricultural infrastructure and cropland, repeatedly attacked aid workers, and facilitated the looting of humanitarian supplies, fueling desperation among Gaza's starving population. Last week, as The Associated Pressreported, "two children and a woman were crushed to death... as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the Gaza Strip amid a worsening food crisis in the war-ravaged territory."
Amina Mohammed, the U.N.'s deputy secretary-general, said at the Cairo conference on Monday that "conditions for Palestinians in Gaza are appalling and apocalyptic," with malnutrition running "rampant" and famine "imminent."
"In the past four months alone, nearly 19,000 children were hospitalized due to acute malnutrition—nearly double the cases in the first half of the year," Mohammed said. "In the face of the gigantic needs, humanitarian aid is—outrageously—being blocked. This flies in the face of the clear requirements under international humanitarian law to respect and to protect civilians and to ensure their essential needs are met."
"It's past time for an immediate cease-fire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages," she added. "The catastrophe in Gaza is nothing short of a complete breakdown of our common humanity. The nightmare must stop. We cannot continue to look away."
Israeli airstrikes killed nearly a dozen people in southern Lebanon on Monday, heightening fears that a tenuous cease-fire agreement is on the verge of collapse.
The Israeli military on Monday carried out a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing nearly a dozen people and further imperiling a fragile cease-fire agreement that Israel has been accused of violating dozens of times since the deal took effect last week.
Israel's latest strikes came after Hezbollah fired a pair of projectiles in the direction of Israeli-occupied territory known as Shebaa Farms. Israel's military, which condemned the Hezbollah attack as a violation of the cease-fire deal, said the projectiles did not cause any casualties, as they fell in open areas.
The Israeli outlet Ynetreported that Israel "acted against alleged Hezbollah violations without consulting the international committee tasked with monitoring compliance under the agreement."
CNNnoted Monday that Hezbollah's projectile fire was a response to "repeated Israeli strikes that have hit Lebanon daily since Thursday, the day after the cease-fire came into force." A United Nations peacekeeping source told the outlet that Israel has violated the cease-fire deal "about 100 times."
About the Lebanon ceasefire Biden is so proud of — CNN just reported that "Israel has violated that ceasefire about 100 times." pic.twitter.com/w172R5VrQM
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) December 2, 2024
In a statement, Hezbollah accused Israel of "firing on civilians" and launching "airstrikes in different parts of Lebanon, which led to the death of citizens and the injury of others, in addition to the continued violation of Lebanese airspace by hostile Israeli aircraft reaching the capital Beirut."
The cease-fire deal brokered by France and the United States includes a 60-day period during which Israel must halt "offensive military operations against Lebanese targets" and withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon. The agreement was announced after weeks of relentless Israeli bombings and ground attacks in Lebanon that killed thousands of people and displaced more than a million.
The U.S., Israel's main ally and weapons supplier, assured Israel that a cease-fire agreement would not limit its ability to attack Lebanon whenever it perceives a threat, calling into question the deal's legitimacy.
Asked about alleged violations of the cease-fire agreement, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Monday that "the cease-fire is holding" and the Biden administration is examining potential violations in partnership with the government of France.
"Ultimately, what we don't want to see is the cease-fire break down, and we have not seen the cease-fire break down," Miller said.
But the Biden administration has reportedly told Israel privately that it is "concerned" the cease-fire deal could collapse.
"The Israelis have been playing a dangerous game in recent days," an unnamed U.S. official told Axios.
One Israeli official, according toAxios, "admitted that the current situation could lead to the collapse of the cease-fire but stressed it will depend on how Hezbollah responds" to Israel's latest round of airstrikes.
"Someone tell Trump that Israel already unleashed hell on Gaza, and hostages were not released."
In an early signal of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's foreign policy plans for when he returns to office next month, the Republican said Monday "there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East" if Hamas does not release hostages taken from Israel, the occupying military force in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Trump demanded hostages seized during the October 7 attack of last year be released or his promised retribution would follow. Nearly 45,000 Palestinians have already been killed—mostly civilian men, women, and children—since Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Gaza in the wake of the Hamas-led operation.
Of the 251 people taken captive last year, 63 are believed to be still alive in Gaza, according toThe Washington Post's tracker, which was updated last week. So far, 117 others have been freed or rescued and 71 have been confirmed killed.
After dining with Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel's prime minister, at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida Sunday night, the U.S. president-elect made his threat about the hostages on his Truth Social platform Monday afternoon.
"Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East," Trump wrote. "But it's all talk, and no action! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity."
"Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America," Trump added. "RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!"
Stephen Pollard, editor-at-large The Jewish Chronicle, responded that "this is the message the president of the USA should have sent on October 8, 2023."
Noting Pollard's comments, Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at the U.K.-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, said: "Genuinely interested to know what Stephen thinks the U.S. could have supported Israel to do in Gaza beyond what it currently has. Nukes?"
"This statement is unhinged—'there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East,'" Talbot added.
Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in the School of Security Studies at King's College London, said, "Someone tell Trump that Israel already unleashed hell on Gaza, and hostages were not released."
Drop Site Newshighlighted that "Trump's statement—which follows a video released over the weekend by Hamas' armed wing featuring U.S.-Israeli captive Edan Alexander and explicitly addressing Trump—does not acknowledge that Netanyahu has repeatedly sabotaged cease-fire deals that could have freed Israeli hostages. It also appears timed to position himself to claim credit for any progress in cease-fire talks, as negotiations between Hamas and Egyptian mediators are already underway."
As the American Jewish outlet Forwardreported Monday:
The White House is attempting a final push to get... a deal done. President Joe Biden said last week that the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon had created an opportunity to reignite stalled negotiations for a similar deal in Gaza. "We will use every day we have in office to try to generate as much progress towards that end as possible," Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said Sunday morning on ABC's "This Week."
Given the failed efforts in the past, the families of the American hostages are hoping Trump could leverage his popularity in Israel and his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take immediate action during the transition period. "Trump must not wait until he is inaugurated to help reach a deal that secures the freedom for Edan, six other Americans, and the rest of the hostages," Adi and Yael Alexander, the parents of Edan, said on Saturday.
Despite an abundance of evidence showing how Israel is using U.S. weapons to slaughter civilians in Gaza and severely restricting the flow of humanitarian aid while claiming to target Hamas, Biden and Congress have refused to cut off arms to Netanyahu's government. In fact, just hours after the cease-fire between the Israeli government and Hezbollah took effect—a deal that Israel has since violated approximately 100 times—the Financial Times reported last week that "Biden has provisionally approved a $680 million weapons sale to Israel."