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right now. >> tonight on ""the reidout,"". >> i lost my name, my sense of security, all because of a group of people starting with number 45, and his ally, rudy giuliani, decided to scapegoat me. >> donald trump's repulsive attacks have already devastated the lives of people like georgia election worker ruby freeman. an appeals court heard arguments on the gag order designed to protect others from the wrath of trump and his maga rival. mike lee revised an old and discredited conspiracy theory about january 6th, the very same mike lee who says america is not a democracy. we begin tonight with the expedited destruction of the voting rights act. earlier today in a 2-1 decision, a panel of judges on the 8th circuit court of appeals said that only, only the federal government, not private citizens, and civil rights groups can sue under a key part of the voting rights act. effectively gutting the legislation in seven states. the decision upheld a lower court ruling. the case sought to challenge arkansas lawmakers redistricting in state, where the republican controlled legislature drew 11 majority black districts in the state's 100-seat house of representatives. the state is 16% black. for now, individuals in arkansas, iowa, minnesota, missouri, nebraska, north dakota and south dakota will have to rely on their politically elected attorneys general, and we know how that goes. the impact of this decision cannot be understated. what this panel is effectively saying is that nobody but the attorney general for the state or the country has standing to fight a voting rights act violation. as nbc news puts it, the vast majority of claims are brought by private citizens and civil rights groups who foot the bill for time consuming litigation to protect voting rights. the department of justice with limited resources brings a small fraction of the cases that are fought nationally. to make it even clearer, according to these judges, the naacp, the league of women voters, the native american rights fund, the aclu, the league of united latin american citizens and so many more have no right to sue on behalf of the people. what is the logic? well, according to a majority of those judges who sound like every other federalist society judge crowing about originalist text, when congress vote and amend the voting rights act they never stated they have a right to sue. if the 1965 congress clearly intended to create a private right of action, why not say so in the statute, if not then, why not later, when congress amended section 2. by their estimation, even the supreme court was flawed in hearing cases brought by these private plaintiffs. a point the lone acenting judge makes. it has repeatedly considered such cases, held private rights of action exist under other sections of the vra, and concluded in other vra case, a private section exists. this ruling is a massive upending of past decisions or in legal jargon, precedent. in this country for decades and more than 400 cases, the courts have found that the right to sue by these private groups has been assumed. as the supreme court recently showed us, do not assume anything with the activist judges. most of them told us they believed in stare decisis. that lovely term to describe judicial reverence for precedent but they didn't actually practice it given the reversal of roe v. wade. there's probably another reason the judges were gutsy enough to ignore decades of precedent, and it is buried in another voting rights case brought before the supreme court, the burnvich versus democratic national committee case, which chipped away at the act in 2021, in an opinion written by justice neil gorsuch, he seemingly signalled to the world and other judges the willingness to up end the line of precedent. he wrote, our cases have assumed without deciding that the voting rights act of 1965 furnishes an implied cause of action under section 2. lower courts treated this as a section. guess who cosigned that. you know, justice clarence thomas. that's where this case is likely headed, to a court intent on bringing the death of the seminole law. just last week, native people in north dakota successfully blocked a new map that diluted native voting strengths by drawing mapped boundaries that cracked apart rulings. their victory is reversed and the unfair map remains in place. joining me now is former president and director council of the naacp legal defense fund. she will launch the 14th amendment center for law and democracy at the howard university school of law next year. cheryl, my friend, i want you to first let me know, have i been hyperbolic in my reading of this as a direct attempt to destroy the voting rights act? >> good evening, joy. thank you for having me on. i would say that you have not been hyperbolic enough in your description of what has happened here. i think it's very important that we not blow past how this decision came to be at the 8th circuit. you have already alluded to justice gorsuch's concurrence in the case a few years ago, in which he mention the quote you stated. it was a paragraph of a concurrence, and it is from that paragraph that first the district court judge, trump appointee decided to raise the question of whether section 2 provided for a private right of action and provided for the naacp to sue in this case. so you have a lone district judge, a district judge bound by the decisions of the court of appeals, the 8th circuit in this instance, and the supreme court. taking the words of one justice in a concurrence and deciding to center his inquiry and decision making on the opinion of that concurrence. understand what happened in burnovich. i have no doubt that justice gorsuch circulated his draft to colleagues. he was not joined by them. that was not part of majority opinion or a plurality opinion. it was his opinion, and one district judge understood that to be communicating something and decided to issue this decision. then it goes to the eighth circuit court of appeals and we get this decision 2-1 by david straus, another appointee and former clarence thomas clerk, who enshrines this decision from the district court judge. and i raise all of this, joy, because this is an upending, an attack on the judicial process. it's one thing when it happens as it did in the affirmative action cases when justice thomas's and alito's gave ed blunt the litigant, as he put it, he needed an asian-american plaintiff which is why he returned to the court in the harvard and unc cases, raising complaints on behalf of asian americans. two justices were surmising, musing that affirmative action, perhaps, discriminated against asian americans, and that was enough to send off to put together a new case with a new theory, and he was successful. this is a judge doing it. this is a judge taking the line from one justice and deciding to upend the crown jewel statute of the civil rights era, and what i think, joy, sometimes about the sacrifices, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the strategy that went behind creating this powerful and important statute that ushered in what we could even begin to call democracy in this country by ensuring that black people could exercise the right to vote. when i think about the smallness of the men who believe that they can with the stroke of a pen eliminate the power of this movement, and also eliminate the subsequent decades in which the supreme court has had an opportunity whether there could be a private right of action, and there has not, including in cases i litigated before the supreme court. houston lawyers association, and the eighth circuit had that chance, in jeffers versus clinton, another case i litigated in the early 1990s. this judge took it upon himself, i commend to people the dissent written by judge smith. he is a black bush appointed judge who i think rightly points out, how extraordinary this is and how contrary to the history of the supreme court and to the legislative history of the voting rights act. >> you know, i think about the fact that, as you said, you know, god bless him, eric holder, he was attorney general, sued some folks and sued states that were violating the voting rights act. many of the victories that we know of that have expanded access to the ballot have been filed by private litigants. it's the mill igan case in alabama, bishop barber in north carolina. it's civil rights organizations that have done these lawsuits that have expanded access to the ballot. this court essentially is now saying that people who want the right to vote, whether it's indigenous folks, african americans, latinos, you have to depend on the attorney general of the united states or their attorney. if you're in mississippi, your attorney is not going to do that. if you're in arkansas, your attorney general is not going to do that. you have to rely on the grace of some attorney general in your state who you probably don't even -- you're redistricted so badly that you don't have political power in those states. it's stunning to me. >> i got to read this more closely. i read this judge as the attorney general of the united states. >> just the one, wow. >> and you know, joy, these civil rights statutes were explicitly designed to empower what they called private attorneys general. that is private organizations and individuals to be able to vindicate these claims because they understood that the justice defendant would not be able to vindicate all of these claims, and in fact, would not know. they are not on the ground in community as we are, and they often don't learn about these violations. we are the ones who bring it to their attention and we are the ones who litigate most of the cases. as you point out, think about a time like when trump was president. when trump was president, the reason you heard from me all the time is i decided that ldf, along with other civil rights organizations had to become the attorney general. we had to be a private attorney general because i was under no illusion that jeff sessions would bring up the banner of section 2 days cases and they didn't. there was maybe one section 2 case that was filed by the trump attorney general, by the three. sessions, matthew, the hot tub salesman, or barr. so then you have an abdication of the obligation, and you think that the intention of congress was that black people would just lose the right that had been fought for during that period. it's absurd, it's illogical. it's on its face patently ridiculous. it is a usurpation and one judge, feeling communicated to, the signals they are getting from individual justices and the ways in which they are taking up those signals. this is a usurpation of the power and the judicial function, and that is the only thing i would add to the opening description of how serious this is. it would make its way up to the supreme court. i hope that chief justice roberts who refused to allow alabama to dictate the meaning of section 2 in the milligan case will be as outraged by a federal district judge deciding over the supreme court what the law is. it's not something we can count on. but it is something we can hope for. this is outrageous and it really shows us what the stakes are. >> indeed. i don't know that i'm going to put much faith in john roberts. most of his adult life has been trying to undo and destroy the voting rights act. he's opposed to the voting rights act. this is frightening. everyone should pay close attention to this. the same court who said that somebody doesn't make wedding cakes has standing to sue as a private individual to say that no one has to make wedding cakes for gay couples, and ed blum who didn't find an asian american plaintiff, gets to upend affirmative action for everyone and only the attorney general of the united states can sue for voting rights and that won't happen if donald trump is president. just understand voting rights and the voting rights act will be done. thank you for making the time on the show. thank you, everyone, pay attention to what's happening. that's why you have to vote. up next on "the reidout," republican senator goes all in on a debunked conspiracy theory as the house releases almost all of the almost all of the footage of that day. congressman jamie raskin joins me next. she runs and plays like a puppy again. his #2s are perfect! he's a brand new dog, all in less than a year. when people switch their dog's food from kibble to the farmer's dog, they often say that it feels like magic. but there's no magic involved. (dog bark) it's simply fresh meat and vegetables, with all the nutrients dogs need— instead of dried pellets. just food made for the health of dogs. delivered in packs portioned for your dog. it's amazing what real food can do. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. you'd beforgiven if you don't remember ray epps, who pleaded guilty for his involvement on january 6th and became the subject of wild conspiracy agent that day. epps decided to sue fox news, noting after the allegations were aired on the show, tried to link him to conspiracy theories, suggese was involved in thek. among them, texas senator ted cruz. epps testified to the january 6th committee that the theories had ruined his life. with a conspiracy theory that federal agents were involved or somehow orchestrated the violencen january 6th has meized into the republican party writ large especially now that house speaker mike johnson has pledged to release nearly all january 6th footage. utah senator mike lee was quick to join the effort to whitewash the deadly insurrection, attacking former january 6th committee member liz cheney after she posted video of the violence on social media. lee wrote, ps, how many of these guys are feds as if you'd ever tell us. taking the conspiracy theories further, lee also reposted a former west virginia legislator who questioned if an insurrectionist in an image was flashing a badge. lee wrote, i can't wait to ask fbi director christopher wray about thist the next hearing. kevin lions, a self-proclaimed idiot who stole a photo of john lewis and a staffer's wallet from speaker nancy pelosi's office and has been sentenced to four years in prison. as for the supposed badge, it appears to be a vape pen that lions was seen holding and other images from that day. but the badge conspiracy was embraced by marjorie taylor greene who mentioned the badge in a lengthy rant calling for a new investigation into january 6th, claiming maga didn't do it. joining me now is congressman jamie raskin from maryland who served on the january 6th select committee. congressman, the conspiracy theorists have gone from saying january 6th was just a calm and peaceful tourist visit to now saying, yeah, it was violent, but the feds did it. interesting switch in their story line. what do you make of the fact that mike lee, a supposed serious person and united states senator has joined in. >> they're constantly shifting apologies and rationales for what happened on that day. half the time they're saying it's feds and antifa who were the people in the mob that stormed the capitol. the other half of the time, they're saying they're political prisoners and hostages and they should be released immediately or pardoned. those things are obviously in complete contradiction. if it was antifa and federal agents, why would they be spending all this time trying to get them out of jail. they know exactly who was in there, the right wing maga mob that donald trump recruited to go there. they're trying to bury the whole event in disinformation and propaganda so there's confusion and thank god we've got all of this security footage and tapes and tv cameras taking pictures of it, because if there was nothing visual, they would be denying that the whole thing happened, and, you know, that is the ultimate destination of authoritarian movements like donald trump's. they just try to white watch and wipe out history. >> let me play, and again, i apologize for making you listen to something stupid, but this is a representative clay higgins of louisiana questioning fbi director chris wray last week in the homeland security committee hearing. take a listen. >> can you confirm that the fbi had that sort of engagement with your own agents embedded within to the crowd on january 6th? >> if you are asking whether the violence at the capitol on january 6th was part of some operation orchestrated by fbi sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically not. >> you're saying no? >> no. not violence orchestrated by fbi sources or agents. >> i mean, a lot of this feels very performative. he sort of blown up in maga social media by doing that. but, you know, it's one thing for him to do it. i think mike lee is a different thing, though. because, you know, mike lee sort of styles himself as some sort of constitutional conservative and an intelligent person. the fact that a senator is doing it to me is a different level. what do you think the end game is here? because as you said, they keep changing their story line. if they want to now have new hearings where they try to blame the fbi for doing january 6th, can you even fathom what their end game is for saying that? >> i mean, that is essentially an authoritarian and fascist tactic to try to confuse everyone. you know, i mean, this goes back to the totalitarian movements of the 1930s and the kind of tricks and lies that they told, but what's interesting is that during the impeachment trial, trump's lawyers were very emphatic to say we denounce what happened here. we have nothing to do with what happened here. donald trump had nothing to do had nothing to do with it. i urged him to say that would always be their position because you could see that already the political wheels were turning to try to rewrite the history of it. in a legal sense, they pretended to divorce themselves from what had happened. but now they're in a, you know, a full-fledged embrace of the maga violence that took place, and that is a hallmark of an authoritarian movement. they don't accept election results that don't go their way, and they refuse to announce or openly embrace political violence as a tactic for achieving political power. mike lee doesn't really surprise me. he entered a completely disruptive and vacuous objection in the middle of the impeachment trial so he's been trying to confuse things from the very beginning, and he's essentially on the side of those who are saying they will use any means necessary including violence to put donald trump into power, and to keep him into power. >> yeah, and he is also admitting he wants to get rid of social security. that's his end game. they all ran, they claimed it wasn't an insurrection, yet they were running with everyone else, terrified of that mob, and i will note the colorado judge who ruled that trump is able to stay on the ballot, also said he engaged in insurrection. they also said it was an insurrection. i want to go to a little bit separate issue just for a moment. there is now a big fight over this gag order. and a gag order that the trump campaign would like taken away, and judge chutkan, the claim is that it makes a terrible precedent. let me listen to trump's lawyer, john sauer, arguing about the problem withaving a gag order on dtrump. >> a gagrder installs a single federal district judge a filter for core political speec of the leadingredential candidate, and virtually every american voter in the uni states, at the very height of a presidential campaign. the order is predented, and it sets a terrible precedent for future restrictions o