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For Immediate Release
August, 24 2018, 12:00am EDT
Friday August, 24 2018, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Derrick Robinson, Lawyers’ Committee, DRobinson@LawyersCommittee.org, 202-662-8327 (o), 240-473-3034
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Applauds Reversal of Randolph County Plan to Close Polling Locations
Today, the Randolph County Board of Elections and Registration voted down a proposal to to shutter 75% of the county's polling places during the November election amid criticism that doing so would discriminate against African-Americans living there. Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law released the following statement:
"This is a victory for African American voters across Georgia who are too often subject to a relentless campaign of voter suppression.
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - Today, the Randolph County Board of Elections and Registration voted down a proposal to to shutter 75% of the county's polling places during the November election amid criticism that doing so would discriminate against African-Americans living there. Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law released the following statement:
"This is a victory for African American voters across Georgia who are too often subject to a relentless campaign of voter suppression.
"The defeat of this proposal also shows the power of resistance and the impact that we can have by leveraging our voices against injustice. We're pleased that the Board has seen fit to bow both to needs of the electorate and the dictates of the law and reject this poorly conceived consolidation of polling places. The right to vote is the most sacred civil right in our democracy and we stand fully prepared to defend that right throughout the midterm election cycle."
On Monday, voting rights groups sent a pre-suit demand letter to the Randolph County Board of Elections and Registration objecting to its proposal, and urging the Board to abandon the plan or risk facing legal action in federal court. The demand letter was issued by Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of the New Georgia Project, the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, and the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda.
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has a long history of fighting voter suppression in Georgia including an attempt to relocate a polling site to a hostile location in Macon-Bibb County, a purge program in Hancock County, a discriminatory exact-match policy maintained by the Georgia Secretary of State, and more.
If prospective voters have any questions about the location of their polling place in Georgia or elsewhere, they may call the national, nonpartisan Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE to receive assistance.
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
(202) 662-8600LATEST NEWS
Susan Collins Advanced Trump Tax Bill After Receiving $2 Million from Private Equity Billionaire
The five-term Maine senator's populist opponent has seized on her ties to Wall Street, saying: "I don't think private equity deserves more time with a senator than someone who works two jobs to get by."
Sep 04, 2025
As she gears up for a tough midterm race against a progressive challenger in 2026, Sen. Susan Collins is struggling to shake her reputation as a sellout to corporate interests. A new report out Wednesday may make that even more difficult.
Collins (R-Maine) was one of just three Republican senators not to vote for President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act in July, which slashes over $1 trillion from Medicaid to help pay for tax cuts for the rich and is expected to result in over 10 million people losing health insurance coverage.
But Collins did cast a crucial vote to advance the legislation to the Senate floor. An exclusive report from Tessa Stuart in Rolling Stone gives us damning insight into a possible reason why:
[Collins] cast that vote just one day after private equity billionaire Steve Schwarzman, the chair of the Blackstone Group and a man who will personally reap huge rewards from the bill, kicked in $2 million toward her reelection effort.
On June 27, Schwarzman gave $2 million to Pine Tree Results PAC, a Super PAC backing Collins; on June 28, Collins cast a decisive vote allowing Trump's bill to advance to the floor. The vote was 51-49. Vice President JD Vance was present at the Capitol, on hand to break a tie, but was not needed after Collins voted in favor of the bill.
The bill went on to pass the Senate just a few days later, to Schwarzman's presumed delight, since the legislation both extended the pass-through business deduction—treasured by the owners of private equity firms—and made it permanent, allowing partnerships to deduct 20% of their pre-tax income.
Collins' office has strongly denied that Schwarzman's influence had anything to do with her vote to advance the bill. As press secretary Blake Kernen noted, a tie in the Senate would have been broken by Vance, so "the motion to proceed would have passed without her vote."
However, Stuart notes that this was not Collins' first conspicuous donation from Schwarzman or the private equity industry at large.
According to OpenSecrets, Collins' campaign committee and leadership PAC received over $715,000 from private equity and investment firms—more money than any other person elected to Congress during the 2020 election cycle. It included maximum individual contributions from both Schwarzman and his wife.
That number does not include an additional $2 million that Schwarzman donated to her reelection super PAC in 2020. As Stuart points out, this donation came after Collins dropped a proposed amendment to Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, opposed by private equity. That amendment would have "[made] childcare more affordable, by making changes to the private equity industry's beloved carried interest loophole," Stuart wrote.
While Collins denies that her votes are influenced by the piles of money gifted to her by private equity, one of her most formidable challengers in 2026, oyster farmer and Marine veteran Graham Platner, has often seized on her extensive industry ties to hold her up as the poster child for the "oligarchy" he is trying to unseat from power.
"I believe that input from working people is far more important than input from someone who simply has money," Platner thundered during a Labor Day speech in Portland alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). "I believe that we shouldn't be settling for crumbs while billionaires eat the cookie we baked. I don't think private equity deserves more time with a senator than someone who works two jobs to get by."
If Democrats are going to regain the Senate in 2026, Maine will be an essential state to win, something that looks increasingly possible as approval ratings for Collins have plummeted over the first half-year of Trump's second term.
Nearly 7,000 attended Platner's speech, during which he railed against the five-term senator Collins' long history of casting "symbolic" dissenting votes against her party, like opposing Trump's tax legislation, or voting to codify Roe v. Wade, to posture as a "moderate" without actually disrupting their agenda.
"Susan Collins' charade is wearing thin," Platner said Monday. "No one cares that you pretend to be remorseful as you sell out to lobbyists. No one cares while you sell out to corporations, and no one cares while you sell out to a president, who are all engineering the greatest redistribution of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in American history."
Sumud Flotilla Member Greta Thunberg 'Absolutely Disgusted' by Global Silence on Gaza Genocide
"I am ashamed as a human being," said the Swedish human rights and climate activist.
Sep 04, 2025
Activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday expressed her contempt for the international community for its continued inaction on ending the mass suffering being inflicted on Gaza by the Israeli government.
Thunberg, who is a passenger on the Global Sumud Flotilla attempting to break through the Israeli blockade of Gaza, told Middle East Eye that her decision to join the voyage was "the bare minimum" she could do as Palestinians are facing mass starvation.
Thunberg then turned her ire to the rest of the world, which she accused of sitting on its hands while Gazans are suffering from a full-blown famine.
"I am absolutely disgusted by how there are so many people who are unable to say anything," she said. "Who are unable to do the very bare minimum to acknowledge the genocide, to even go to a demonstration, to even attend a protest when people are fighting for their lives to survive and to sustain their families."
The Swedish-born Thunberg went on to say that "I am ashamed as a human being, especially by my government, who are supposed to represent me," and she cited a recent quote from Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch, who said last month that Israel was doing the world a "favor" with its military operations in Gaza.
"Our complicity is worsening every day, as this genocide is escalating, that we aren't able to do more," Thunberg said. "That politicians aren't able to do the very bare minimum to uphold international law and prevent even the worst war crimes from happening. This is a textbook example of how our systems have failed."
In an exclusive interview with MEE from aboard one of the Global Sumud Flotilla boats destined for Gaza, vocal Palestine activist Greta Thunberg described the initiative as "inspired by the words of Palestinians." pic.twitter.com/a7CGGJlJiG
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) September 4, 2025
The flotilla, which departed from Spain earlier this week, aims to pass through an Israeli military blockade to deliver humanitarian aid to people in Gaza.
Thunberg was also a passenger on a previous flotilla mission that was intercepted by Israeli forces, who detained its passengers and then returned them to their home countries.
In addition to Thunberg, other prominent passengers on the current flotilla include American actress Susan Sarandon, Irish actor Liam Cunningham, Portuguese politician Mariana Mortágua, former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, and Mandla Mandela, the grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Noem Says Angola Chosen for Migrant Detention Because of Its 'Notorious' Violent History
The Louisiana state prison has been known for brutal working conditions, solitary confinement, and violence.
Sep 04, 2025
As a court in Fort Myers, Florida prepared to hold the first hearing on the legal rights of immigrants detained at "Alligator Alcatraz," the Everglades detention facility that a federal judge ordered to be shut down last month, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday said the Trump administration has found a new prison to house arrested migrants, and boasted that detainees will likely get "a message" from the facility the government selected.
The administration has struck a "historic" deal with the Louisiana state government, said officials Wednesday, and will begin detaining hundreds of immigrants in a new facility at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly called Angola and well known for its long history of violence and brutality against inmates as well as inhumane conditions.
Noem said in a press conference Wednesday that the prison, a former slave plantation, has "absolutely" been chosen due to its reputation for brutal working conditions—over which a group of inmates sued last year—use of solitary confinement, including for teenage prisoners; lack of access to clean water, sufficient food, and adequate hygiene; and violence.
"Absolutely, this is a facility that's notorious. It's a facility—Angola prison is legendary—but that's a message that these individuals that are going to be here, that are illegal criminals, need to understand," said Noem.
"Angola has a particularly dark history of abuse and repression that's almost singular in prison history in the United States."
An isolated section of the nation's largest maximum-security prison will house "the worst of the worst" criminal offenders who are immigrants, said Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, after whom the Angola facility has apparently been named. The area where up to 400 immigrants will be held is being called Camp 57, an homage to Landry, who is the state's 57th governor.
Landry issued an emergency declaration in July to expedite repairs in the facility, which hasn't held prisoners since 2018 due to security and safety risks stemming from its deteriorating condition.
"Angola has a particularly dark history of abuse and repression that's almost singular in prison history in the United States," Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, told The New York Times.
As with Alligator Alcatraz, the administration has come up with a nickname for the detention and deportation center: "Louisiana Lockup."
Landry emphasized Wednesday that "the most violent offenders" will be held in the facility, and said that "if you don't think that they belong in somewhere like this, you've got a problem."
The center, which is being run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contractors, was already housing 51 detainees as of Wednesday and is expected to hold up to 200 by the end of September.
Noem named examples of people convicted of crimes including murder, sexual assault, battery, and possession of child sexual abuse imagery, who would be sent to the Angola facility.
The administration's comments echoed earlier statements about Alligator Alcatraz, where officials said "the worst of the worst" would be held while they awaited deportation.
The Miami Herald and The Tampa Bay Times reported in July that just a third of about 900 people held at the facility had been convicted of crimes, which ranged from serious offenses to traffic violations. More than 250 people had never been convicted or charged with any crime.
One analysis in June found that nearly two-thirds of migrants who had been rounded up by ICE in the first months of Trump's second term did not have criminal convictions.
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