A Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit alleges that Hazleton, Pennsylvania’s city council elections violate federal law because not enough “Hispanic-preferred candidates” are winning – without defining what a Hispanic-preferred candidate is.
The DOJ sued the majority-Hispanic town Tuesday over its at-large election system in which voters across Hazelton vote to elect each district’s city council member, alleging it does not give Hispanics a fair chance at participation and violates a section of the Voting Rights Act that bans restricting voters based on race. The complaint fails to prove illegal discrimination and appears “meritless” on its face, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“What the complaint fails entirely to address is that Hispanic candidates are losing races not because of their race, but due to politics — if they run as Democrats, they are going to lose,” Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former counsel for the DOJ, told the DCNF.
He helped the agency enforce the Voting Rights Act under the Bush administration.
“In the 2023 election for the city’s mayor, the incumbent Republican, Jeff Cusat, won in a landslide with 61% of the vote,” von Spakovsky said. “The Democratic Hispanic who ran against him, Vianney Castro, received only 28% of the vote.”
Hazleton voted for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 but chose Republican President-elect Donald Trump in 2020 by 55% and in 2024 by 62%.
The 10-page lawsuit alleges societal discrimination has kept “Hispanic-preferred candidates” from winning a single Hazleton city council seat. The DOJ did not define “Hispanic-preferred candidate” in its lawsuit. The complaint also used the term “Hispanic-preferred Hispanic candidate.”
The DOJ alleges “discrimination in education, employment, housing, and policing” and “disparities” between Hispanic and white Hazleton residents are why the city’s at-large election system is unconstitutional. Attorneys said white Hazleton voters continually keep Hispanic-preferred candidates from winning by voting for other candidates. It acknowledged “low turnout among Hispanic voters” but blamed this on “obstacles to political participation.”
The DOJ declined to comment further on the reasoning or evidence for its claims.
Biden’s DOJ previously used the Voting Rights Act to sue Georgia over a 2021 election integrity law, which mandated voter ID and other Republican-backed policies that the outgoing president labeled “Jim Crow 2.0.” A federal judge declined to block the law in 2023, and Georgia saw record voter turnout in its last midterm and general elections since the law passed.
Another DOJ lawsuit against a 2021 Texas law was unsuccessful as a federal appeals court upheld almost all of its provisions in October. Other GOP-controlled states, such as Florida and Alabama, have entered legal battles with Biden’s DOJ over their own election integrity policies.
Attorney Erik Jaffe, who works for a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, filed an amicus brief asking a federal court to dismiss the Georgia suit in 2021. He called the DOJ’s interpretation of the Voting Rights Act overly “aggressive” in a phone interview with the DCNF about the Hazleton case.
“What they think makes it discriminatory are demographic changes that haven’t been matched closely enough by electoral results,” Jaffe told the DCNF.
Hazleton became mostly Hispanic in 2016 at 52%, according to National Geographic. The recent timing of the change casts further doubt on DOJ attorneys’ narrative of historical oppression, Jaffe said.
Jaffe said voters elect attorneys general, presidents and other officials through at-large elections and that cities do not have to “constantly change [their] voting systems” to make them fair for all ethnic groups.
“Quite frankly, I don’t trust the narrative put forward by the Justice Department because I don’t trust the credibility of the lawyers inside the Civil Rights Division, where I used to work,” von Spakovsky told the DCNF. “There is also no evidence that Hispanics have suffered discrimination as required to validate a claim under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
The next head of the Civil Rights Division under Trump “should undertake a careful review of this lawsuit and dismiss it unless there is actual evidence justifying” it, von Spakovsky said.
“The fact that it has been filed at the last minute in the final stages of the Biden administration also makes me suspicious that it is a meritless lawsuit,” von Spakovsky said, referencing Trump’s coming inauguration this month. (RELATED: Biden DOJ Poured Over $100,000,000 Into ‘Restorative Justice,’ DEI Efforts For K-12 Students, New Report Finds)
Beyond alleged issues for voters, the DOJ said ethnic hostility and other “barriers” keep Hispanic-preferred candidates out of office.
“At least one Hispanic candidate received threatening phone calls during the campaign, some of which included people yelling obscenities,” the lawsuit said without naming the candidate, citing a source, or giving a date. “The candidate believed the calls were tied to anti-Hispanic sentiment.”
The DOJ’s complaint demands a court order that would require a new election method the Biden administration deems fair for Hazleton.
Mayor Cusat and City Council President Jim Perry pushed back in a statement to media outlets. They said the DOJ notified the city last month of its legal complaints and the city “disputes” claims of unfairness toward Hispanics.
“The City has been working with the DOJ in good faith for the last several weeks to address their concerns, however, it appears that suit was hurriedly filed this past Tuesday night before any meaningful discussions could take place,” they said.
“The current at-large system in the City of Hazleton gives equal voting rights to all citizens regardless of their race or gender,” they said.
The officials also said the city was preparing a ballot referendum question for voters to address the issues the DOJ raised.
Left-wing voting activists also sued Hazleton last year to change the school board’s at-large election system, alleging it is unfair to Hispanics and violates the same law the DOJ cites. The school board denied their discrimination claims and the case is still pending.
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