Obama Law

Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor. David C. Iglesias was the U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico between 2001 and 2007. He is the author of the book In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration. Dahlia Lithwick is a Slate senior editor. Joseph Rich is the special counsel for federal agencies and litigation at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He worked in the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division from 1968-2005, serving as chief of the voting section for the last six years of his tenure there. Stuart Taylor Jr. is a senior writer and columnist for National Journal magazine.

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This has been an incredibly useful discussion, and yet I suspect we have touched only the tip of the iceberg on some of these issues! Just a few quick notes and loose ends, if I may. Stuart, I am sure you have seen this report by Human Rights First suggesting that having prosecuted more than 100 terrorism-related cases, the government is actually pretty well-equipped to try terrorists in the conventional court system. I don't dispute that there are serious problems associated with the criminal courts. But after the circus at Guantanamo this week, I am more inclined than ever to go with the devil of a system we know.

Joe and David, your thoughts on vote fraud are very welcome, especially given that the hysteria about this issue seems to be on the rise, despite all the empirical evidence to the contrary. So I end echoing the observation that you made in your first post, Joe: The time to fix the voter-registration and voting laws is now. As Justice Stevens noted in his Crawford opinion, regardless of the actual data, voter confidence is ever-more shaky. This has happened for many reasons, and vote fraud is just a part of it. Still, here's hoping the new DoJ can rededicate itself to safeguarding the right to vote, as David suggests, and here's hoping that happens sooner rather than later. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and insights.

Dahlia

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Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor and an editor of DoubleX. David C. Iglesias was the U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico between 2001 and 2007. He is the author of the book In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration. Dahlia Lithwick is a Slate senior editor. Joseph Rich is the special counsel for federal agencies and litigation at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He worked in the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division from 1968-2005, serving as chief of the voting section for the last six years of his tenure there. Stuart Taylor Jr. is a senior writer and columnist for National Journal magazine.

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