White House blocks South Carolina voter ID law

By Muriel Kane/Raw Story

In a move with significant implications for the 2012 elections, the Obama administration on Fridayblocked a South Carolina voter ID law from taking effect because of concerns that it would have a disproportionate effect on minority voters.

The law, which was passed last spring by the South Carolina state legislature and signed by Governor Nikki Haley, requires voters to present some form of photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, or military identification, along with their voter’s registration.

According to Reuters, “The Justice Department said the requirement could harm the right to vote of tens of thousands of people, noting that just over a third of the state’s minorities who are registered voters did not have a driver’s license needed to cast a ballot.”

“The state’s data demonstrate that non-white voters are both significantly burdened … [and] disproportionately unlikely to possess the most common types of photo identification,” the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Thomas Perez, wrote to the state.

Perez also noted that South Carolina had not offered evidence of any type of voter fraud that could not be handle by existing laws but would be “deterred by requiring voters to present only photo identification at the polls.”

South Carolina is one of a number of states with a history of institutionalized discrimination which continue to be required under 1960′s civil rights legislation to obtain approval from the Justice Department for any redistricting or changes in state voting laws. Changes in Florida and Texas are currently under review for the same reason.

The Justice Department has indicated that its decision may be reconsidered if South Carolina provides a satisfactory plan to provide exemptions to the photo ID requirement.

Goldman Sachs Case Sent To Justice Department Prosecutors By SEC

ByMARCY GORDON

WASHINGTON — The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan is conducting a criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs over mortgage securities deals the big Wall Street firm arranged, a knowledgeable person said Thursday.

The person said the probe stems from a criminal referral by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the inquiry is in a preliminary phase. The SEC earlier this month filed civil fraud charges against Goldman and a trader in connection with the transactions, alleging it misled investors by failing to tell them the subprime mortgage securities had been chosen with help from a Goldman hedge fund client that was betting the investments would fail. Goldman has denied the charges and said it will contest them in court.

News of the action came a day after a group of 62 House lawmakers, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., asked Justice to conduct a criminal probe of Goldman.

SEC spokesman John Nester wouldn't confirm or deny that the agency had made a referral to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. He declined any comment on the matter, as did Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan.

Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag said, "Given the recent focus on the firm, we're not surprised by the report of an inquiry. We would cooperate fully with any request for information."

The Wall Street Journal first reported the Justice Department action.

The Justice Department move was the latest in a dramatic series of turns in the Goldman saga, which has pitted the culture of Wall Street against angry lawmakers in an election year, in the wake of the financial crisis that plunged the country into the most severe recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Also on Thursday, following days of failed test votes, the Senate lurched into action on sweeping legislation backed by the Obama administration that would clamp down on Wall Street and the sort of high-risk investments that nearly brought down the economy in 2008.

And two days earlier, a daylong showdown before a Senate investigative panel put Goldman's defense of its conduct in the run-up to the financial crisis on display before indignant lawmakers and a national audience. The panel, which investigated Goldman's activities for 18 months, alleges that the Wall Street powerhouse bet against its clients – and the housing market – by taking short positions on mortgage securities and failed to tell them that the securities it was selling were at very high risk of default.

Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein testily told the investigative subcommittee that clients who bought the subprime mortgage securities from the firm in 2006 and 2007 came looking for risk "and that's what they got."