I REMEMBER WHEN POLITICIZING THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BAD: Career lawyers overruled on voting case: Black Panthers had wielded weapons, blocked polls. “Justice Department political appointees overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of wielding a nightstick and intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place last Election Day, according to documents and interviews. The incident – which gained national attention when it was captured on videotape and distributed on YouTube – had prompted the government to sue the men, saying they violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by scaring would-be voters with the weapon, racial slurs and military-style uniforms. Career lawyers pursued the case for months, including obtaining an affidavit from a prominent 1960s civil rights activist who witnessed the confrontation and described it as ‘the most blatant form of voter intimidation’ that he had seen, even during the voting rights crisis in Mississippi a half-century ago.”

Obviously, we need to allow voters to carry weapons to the polls, to protect themselves from such thuggery. . . .

UPDATE: More thoughts, and some video, from Power Line.