Wall Street firms, multinational corporations, and giant law firms are teaming up with the Brennan Justice Center, which is heavily funded by billionaire George Soros, to pressure states against reforms to their election process.
After Georgia lawmakers passed sweeping reform legislation to protect the state’s elections, including requiring photo identification to vote, corporate executives have blasted the move and many are suggesting they will boycott the state by moving business elsewhere.
Now, Fortune 500 corporate executives, Wall Street firms, and attorneys at some of the nation’s largest law offices are reportedly working with the left-wing Brennan Justice Center to pressure state lawmakers from passing similar election reforms.
The corporate coalition is seeking to sue states for passing such reforms while also threatening to pull their business endeavors from states that do pass reforms.
The New York Times reports:
Many of Wall Street’s most powerful firms are also part of the effort,including Simpson Thacher; Skadden Arps; Akin Gump; Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Ropes & Gray Sullivan & Cromwell; Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Wachtel Lipton. [Emphasis added]
“We plan to challenge any election law that would impose unnecessary barriers on the right to vote and that would disenfranchise underrepresented groups in our country,” Mr. Karp said. [Emphasis added]
The firms will work with the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit organization, to identify laws that it might challenge in court. Mr. Karp said that could include challenging the voting law that Republicans passed in Georgia last month, and which set off a national debate over voting rights. [Emphasis added]
Over the weekend, more than 100 corporate executives discussed in a meeting the importance for them of publicly opposing election reform legislation like Georgia’s. The meeting included executives from credit card company American Express, pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., and clothing company Levi Strauss & Co., among others.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), head of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), has been lobbying GOP leaders to cut ties with corporations and Wall Street in favor of protecting working and middle class interests against the encroachment of concentrated corporate power.
No corporation should be more powerful than the government you elect!
— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) April 13, 2021
The Brennan Justice Center is targeting state lawmakers in Georgia, Texas, New Hampshire, Florida, Michigan, and Arizona whom they claim are promoting “voter suppressive bills” with provisions that require voter ID for those voting via absentee ballot, prohibiting the mass unsolicited mailout of ballots, and increasing fines for state officials who refuse to clean up voter rolls.
The group rakes in millions every year from Soros, corporate interests, big banks, and other left-wing organizations. In 2019, the last year for which financial data is available, the Brennan Justice Center’s most high-profile donors included Soros’s Open Society Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Bank of America, the Tides Foundation, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, PayPal, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, PepsiCo, and Comcast NBCUniversal.
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