Emergency motion asks judge to restrain Trump DOJ's 'drastic break' from normalcy and 'halt their intimidation' of voters at polls

The NAACP and several voters over the weekend asked a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on an emergency basis, saying they were not taking the Trump DOJ’s assurances at face value.

The motion and memorandum filed in Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton’s court on Sunday said time is of the essence as Election Day is Tuesday and — “for the first time ever” — Americans “face the risk of encountering federal law enforcement agents and criminal prosecutors at polling places.”

The NAACP and plaintiffs the Rev. Andre Miller, Nicholas Little and Daniella Pierre said the administration’s mass deployment of election monitors will include federal agents from the DOJ, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

“Experienced law enforcement experts are sounding the alarm, too, that DOJ’s use of law enforcement personnel at the polls is both a drastic break from institutional norms and is clearly going to generate intimidation and threaten voter turnout at the polls,” court documents said.

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Pierre, “of Haitian descent,” said she fears the “presence of federal law enforcement personnel at polling sites in Miami-Dade County” as “intimidating to her,” based in part on “Defendants’ recent deplorable comments about the Haitian Community[.]”

The Rev. Miller, a church pastor who “serves as a polling precinct” in Maricopa County, Arizona, said he has “a direct role in facilitating the voting process” and “feels anxiety and fear that should such a need arise on Election Day he could be subjected to criminal liability due to the law enforcement personnel from federal agencies monitoring.”

And Little, identified as a former Navy lieutenant who plans to vote in Harris County, Texas, on Tuesday, said it isn’t plausible that feds will “shed their law enforcement powers while on duty,” even if they don’t have firearms.

“These are law enforcement agencies with sworn law enforcement officers, who carry the authority to investigate, detain and arrest even when they do not have a firearm or wear law enforcement uniforms. DOJ has long trained civil servants to serve as poll monitors to document instances of racial discrimination or harassment from election officials,” the plaintiffs said. “But never before has DOJ recruited poll monitors from federal law enforcement agencies. DOJ’s decision to deploy federal law enforcement agents and personnel to election sites is unlawful and serves a plain purpose: to intimidate voters and election workers alike, and to have a chilling effect on in-person voting on Election Day. Voters are already experiencing this intimidation and will continue to.”

“DOJ’s actions are contrary to the principles that shape our system of democracy and fair elections and impede the fundamental right to vote free from fear,” the filing added, “respectfully” asking Walton to “enjoin Defendants from departing from its policy of prohibiting deployment of federal law enforcement agents and staff, and halt their intimidation of, and resulting interference with, the Plaintiffs’ exercise of the right to vote in person during upcoming election.”

In a separate but similar NAACP lawsuit last week, one seeking “records and information” on the administration’s stated plan to deploy “1,000 election monitors,” the DOJ submitted a declaration claiming there would be nothing out of the ordinary at polling sites, that monitors would be prohibited from carrying firearms, and that neither ICE nor FBI agents would serve in monitor roles.

A third lawsuit in which the NAACP is a plaintiff days ago led a California federal judge to order the Trump administration to stop “intimidation, threats, and attempts at coercion” against state and local election workers.

Conrad Hoyt contributed to this report.

The post Emergency motion asks judge to restrain Trump DOJ’s ‘drastic break’ from normalcy and ‘halt their intimidation’ of voters at polls first appeared on Law & Crime.