March 28, 2025 Story by: Publisher
The U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump has dropped a lawsuit against Houston County, which argued the county’s at-large commission races violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(i), the United States respectfully gives notice that it dismisses United States v. Houston County, No. 5:25-cv-25.”
However, the court battle is not over after two Houston County residents joined the lawsuit earlier this month.
After Trump’s administration came into office, the president’s Department of Justice filed a petition to drop their case on Monday. The lawsuit was originally filed in the waning days of Joe Biden’s administration.
The suit argues that the county-wide system for county commission elections dilutes the power of Black voters and violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite around 31% of the county’s population being Black, the county has no Black county commissioners, the lawsuit said.
Since Reconstruction, the lawsuit also says the county has only had one Black commissioner. The DOJ, at the time, argued that was a product of at large voting. Each candidate is voted on by all county residents rather than geographic districts.
Section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act bans policies and procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, limiting minorities’ access to the representation, according to the DOJ’s website. That has, in the past, led to injunctions ordering communities move to geographic districts.
“The current method of election the Houston County Board of Commissioners dilutes the voting strength of Black citizens,” the lawsuit said at the time.
The lawsuit asked a judge to order Houston County to move to geographic districts rather than county-wide races. That, the DOJ argued, would fix a county commission they argued was unrepresentative of the Houston County population.
As the Trump administration took office, however, the DOJ’s position in the case changed.
But before the DOJ’s decision to drop the case, two Houston County residents — Michael Jones and Courtney Driver — saw the writing on the wall.
They enlisted their own attorneys to file a “Complaint-in-Intervention,” adding their names to the case on March 5 in case the DOJ chose to withdraw their lawsuit — as it did on Monday.
That lawsuit has caused its own legal fight that threatens their ability to continue with the case.
The new legal battle:
Attorneys for Houston County, however, are now sparring with Jones and Driver’s attorneys, arguing that the voters should not be able to keep the case going without the DOJ backing it.
The county argues that Congress only gave the U.S. Attorney General the power to pursue Voting Rights Act cases, but Houston County’s attorneys do recognize in their filing that is “an ‘open question.'”
However, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals — which provides binding legal opinions to federal judges in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and South and North Dakota — ruled that Congress did not give individuals the power to enforce the law. The decision was split 2-1.
That judgment, however, is not binding on the judge in this case, U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell in the U.S. Middle District of Georgia. He’s bound to decisions made the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals out of Atlanta.
However, Houston County’s attorney hopes that Treadwell resonates with the 8th Circuit’s reasoning.
“Without a private right of action, this Court lacks jurisdiction to hear Plaintiff-Intervenors’ claim and their Complaint should be dismissed in its entirety,” Houston County wrote in a filing on Wednesday.
They say Congress has had opportunities to add language allowing private citizens to sue for enforcement, but legislators have not done so.
Before asking for the case to be dropped, Houston County’s Board of Commissioners said in a statement that they would investigate the DOJ’s claims.
“Houston County will always follow the law,” Houston County’s Board of Commissioners said. “If we determine if we agree with DOJ regarding a possible violation of the Voting Rights Act after reviewing all of the documents and evidence, we will take appropriate action at that time.”
Houston County emphasizes that the DOJ lawsuit “does not contain any allegations of intentional racial discrimination in Houston County.”
The lawsuit names the county and the members of the county commissions as defendants.
Source: 13WMAZ
