Senator Cornyn Statement on Attorney General Holder’s Hypocritical Criticism of Texas’ Voter ID Law

See the Statement from Senator John Cornyn Below

But first, before Senator Cornyn’s statement, here it a quick rant from me about Eric Holder’s little visit to Texas

In TX, Eric Holder Ignores Democrat Voting Fraud & Hypocritically Requires ID Just to Hear Him Speak

The United States Attorney General Eric Holder paid a visit to Texas. He tried to accuse Republicans of voter fraud while ignoring that most cases of voter fraud are by the Democrats. He did not mention that he let the New Black Panthers off the hook for intimidating voters at polling places. In 2008, there was massive Democrat, Obama election related voter fraud in Indiana and Eric Holder has yet to visit, or even call Indiana even though the state has repeatedly asked for help. He spoke about how Voter ID in Texas elections would somehow be discriminating to minorities, and yet he hypocritically required everyone show ID in order to be able to go see him speak. He made it seem as though Hispanics could not get elected unless the lines were redrawn in Texas to favor Democrats, and yet he failed to mention that more Texas Hispanics were elected to office in 2012 from the Republican Party than from the Democrat Party. Eric Holder is a Farce as the Attorney General and he should be fired for his knowledge of the fast and furious gun running government program that led to a Border Agent getting killed by guns bought as part of this program.

Katherine Engelbrecht, the founder of True the Vote, led a rally in Austin to Protest Eric Holder’s Texas Speech. Adryana Boyne was one of the key Hispanic speakers at this rally and the video of her speech at the rally against Eric Holder can be seen my clicking here.

True the Vote wrote a great summary of what happened at the rally, what Eric Holder said during his speech, and how Eric Holder is just plain wrong.

The following is a Statement from Texas Senator John Cornyn Regarding Attorney General Eric Holder’s Criticism of Texas’ Voter Identification Law:

Senator Cornyn: Voter ID Laws are Reasonable, Constitutional, Necessary

The following op-ed, authored by Senator Cornyn, ran in the Sunday edition of the Austin American-Statesman.

Speaking Tuesday at the LBJ Presidential Library, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder criticized state voter-identification laws designed to prevent fraud. Holder asked: "Are we willing to allow this era our era to be remembered as the age when our nation's proud tradition of expanding the franchise ended?"

I agree with the attorney general that Americans must aggressively uphold the integrity of our electoral process. That is precisely why I support voter-ID laws, which are reasonable, constitutional, and necessary.

Over the past two decades, there have been thousands of allegations of voter fraud throughout the United States. Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now recently pleaded guilty to voter-registration fraud in Nevada, and scores of individuals in Minnesota have been convicted of voter fraud related to the 2008 election.

In a poll conducted in June, an overwhelming majority (75 percent) of registered voters — including 77 percent of independents and 63 percent of Democrats — said that Americans should present photo ID before casting their ballots. To date, 16 different states have enacted a photo-ID mandate, and another 15 states have required voters to show some form of personal documentation, such as a utility bill or a bank statement (though not necessarily a photo ID).

These 31 states include both Republican and Democratic strongholds, along with many swing states. There are only three states (Oregon, Vermont, and Wyoming) that do not have a voter-ID law on the books and did not consider one when their legislatures met in 2011.

Critics of voter-ID statutes claim that they suppress voter turnout, but there is no evidence to support that view. In Georgia, turnout rates have actually gone up since the Peach State adopted a photo-ID law. And according to a 2007 University of Missouri study, "The only consistent and frequently statistically significant impact of photo ID in Indiana is to increase voter turnout in counties with a greater percentage of Democrats relative to other counties"

Some contend that lower-income Americans cannot afford to comply with these laws, but every single state with a photo-ID requirement allows voters to obtain a government-issued photo ID at no charge.

Here in Texas, where the new voter-ID measure is scheduled to take effect on January 1, not only will citizens be able to get a free photo ID, they will also receive provisional ballots if they forget to bring their ID to the polling station. The Texas Secretary of State will be obligated to educate voters about the ID rule, and each Texas county will have to provide multilingual reminders both before and on Election Day. All voters above the age of 70 will be exempt from the requirement, as will all disabled voters.

The Supreme Court has ruled that such laws are constitutional. In 2008, the court upheld Indiana's voter-ID law, which is substantially similar to the Texas law. Writing for the court, Justice John Paul Stevens explained that "the application of the statute to the vast majority of Indiana voters is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting ‘the integrity and reliability of the electoral process.' "

In the face of clear Supreme Court precedent, and despite the fact that lawyers at the Justice Department have not completed their review of voter-ID laws, Holder has publicly compared them to literacy tests and poll taxes. This comparison is outrageous. The attorney general has clearly prejudged voter-ID laws. Even worse, he is sending an unmistakable message to his own department in the midst of their review.

By urging Americans to campaign against voter-ID laws, Attorney General Holder has once again placed himself on the wrong side of a critically important issue, not to mention the wrong side of public opinion. Safeguarding the credibility and soundness of our voting process is vital to the health of American democracy. Does the Attorney General really want us to become a nation where the federal government discourages efforts to preserve electoral integrity?

War Against Religion: Texas Senator John Cornyn Tells Air Force to Stop Banning Bible Verses

It seems like every day there are new reports of an organization or government agency that is discriminating against, or banning, Christianity. From the attempted banning of crosses at memorials to the banning of Christian prayers at the Houston National Cemetery, there is an all-out war against Christianity. The constitution has been misrepresented and distorted in an effort to prevent people from openly expressing their religious beliefs. The Founding Fathers of course not only allowed religious expression, they regularly supported religious expression!More recently, the United States Air Force has suspended a training class because it simply mentions Bible Verses in the course.

Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn, along with probably most Americans, has a problem with this. Senator Cornyn has sent a letter to the Secretary of the Air Force, Michael Donley, saying that the Air Force has wrongly interpreted and requesting that the class be reinstated.

Senator Cornyn’s entire letter is posted below:

Dear Secretary Donley:

I write to express my concern regarding recent reports that the Department of the Air Force has suspended a course entitled “Christian Just War Theory.”  It is my understanding that this course, taught by chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base, was suspended and is currently under review by Air Force officials after complaints were made that the curriculum referenced passages from the Bible.

As you may know, the reports indicate that a spokesman for the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command has said that the main purpose of the course was to enable missile launch officers to understand that “what they are embarking on is very difficult and you have to have a certain amount of ethics about what you are doing to do that job.”  Our military services, like our nation, are comprised of people representing all faiths.  However, that fact does not preclude military chaplains from teaching a course on just war theory – a theory that has been a part of moral philosophy and the law of war for centuries – merely because it has historically been predicated on religious texts.

Moreover, suspending a course like this because of references to religious texts misinterprets the First Amendment.  Although our Founding Fathers rightly included language in the Constitution that precludes the Federal government from establishing an official religion, this language does not, as some have argued, protect them from exposure to religious references.  The First Amendment is intended to guarantee an individual’s right to the free exercise of religion according to his or her conscience.  The Air Force personnel who have taken this course for the past 20 years have been free to determine, according to their own consciences, whether they accept or reject the premises of just war theory.

With these concerns in mind, I strongly urge you to ensure that a correct interpretation of the First Amendment is applied in resolving this situation.  Moreover, I ask that you provide me with a detailed report on any actions taken by Air Force officials in response to these complaints. 

I appreciate your attention to this request.  Thank you for your service to the men and women of the United States Air Force and our nation.