The 'blockbuster' Florida election law ruling no one saw coming

[Lasher]

Getting ready — No one expected Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker to bless Florida’s contentious 2021 voting law.

Here it comes — But his “blockbluster” ruling — as well-known election law expert and University of California, Irvine professor Rick Hasen put it — went far beyond what many observers predicted.

Sermon — His 288-page ruling, written with the thunder-from-the-heavens type of command that has come to signify Walker’s style, didn’t just swipe down many elements of the law (SB 90) that placed restrictions on mail-in voting and on groups registering voters. It was a stinging takedown that quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and drew the ire of Florida Republicans who called it a partisan performance and unprofessional.

Deep dive — Walker weaved in history and the background of some of the legislative sponsors, including how state Sen. Dennis Baxley opposed establishing a slavery memorial at the Capitol and opposed a bill to replace the statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith in Washington, D.C., with one of Mary McLeod Bethune, the famed Black educator. (Walker did note that this information — which was put in the record by those suing the state — had "marginal relevance.&quot

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2022/04/01/the-blockbuster-florida-election-law-ruling-no-one-saw-coming-00022245

[Chainfire]

1. Let me get this straight, Republicans are angry because the ruling

because it was a partisan performance and unprofessional?

Well, bless their hearts.