(John Ransom, Headline USA) US District Judge Mark Walker struck down several provisions of Florida’s new anti-voter fraud bill, an unsurprising development considering Waller was an Obama appointment.
His ruling was a 228-page manifesto, in which the judge said Republicans in Florida purposefully targeted “Black voters because of their propensity to favor Democratic candidates,” according to CNN, which called Walker’s ruling “scathing.”
The law, all leftist hyperbole aside, simply tightened rules on mailed ballots, drop boxes and other election methods that are ripe for fraud and abuse.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, accused Walker of little more than playacting and predicted that the judge’s ruling would be reversed on appeal.
Obama-Nominated Judge Strikes Down Parts Of Florida’s New Voting Law, Implies They’re Racially Motivated https://t.co/WY2J8gIK1K pic.twitter.com/fQOyeT874q
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 1, 2022
“This is the judicial equivalent of pounding the table and I think it was performative partisanship,” DeSantis said.
“I think that’s going to be reversed on appeal,” he added, “the only question is how quickly.”
DeSantis also indicated he was not surprised by the ruling because of the judge’s track record of making partisan rulings that are later reversed.
“In front of certain district judges, we know we will lose no matter what because they are not going to follow the law,” DeSantis said, according to NPR.
Walker is well-known for using insulting language directed at Florida Republicans in his decisions.
In 2018, when then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott was running as a Republican for US Senate, Walker blasted Scott’s campaign rhetoric, as if the First Amendment protecting political speech didn’t even exist, with Walker saying he was going to allow Scott to continue to supervise elections under Florida law.
“Scott has toed the line between imprudent campaign-trail rhetoric and problematic state action,” said the order by Walker, according to Vox.com.
The order had to do with Scott overseeing the state system by which he was elected, as if governors and secretaries of state never oversee their own elections.
“Though sometimes careening perilously close to a due process violation, Scott’s most questionable conduct has occurred in his capacity as a candidate rather than as governor,” the judge added.
