The Daily Fuckup

The Justice Department filed a statement of interest on Oct. 9, 2024, in United States v. State of Alabama, the federal challenge to Alabama’s newly enacted voter-removal program. The department’s case page says the filing addressed Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which bars intimidation, threats, or coercive conduct tied to voting. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/crt/case/united-states-v-state-alabama))

The filing landed in the middle of an already moving case. DOJ says it filed the complaint on Sept. 27, 2024, alleging Alabama’s program to systematically remove registered voters from the rolls violated the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet-period rule. The same case page says a federal court entered a preliminary injunction on Oct. 16, 2024, ordering the state to stop the removal program until after the November 2024 general election. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/crt/case/united-states-v-state-alabama))

The statement of interest did not name Donald Trump or Trump allies. What it did do was add another Voting Rights Act theory to the same Alabama litigation, making the filing part of a narrow court fight over how federal voting law applies to the state’s purge effort. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/crt/case/united-states-v-state-alabama))

The cleanest read of the record is simple: DOJ was already suing Alabama over the voter-removal program, and on Oct. 9 it filed a second paper in the same case pressing a separate Voting Rights Act provision. That is the event, and that is the context. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/crt/case/united-states-v-state-alabama))