Georgia Legislature

Hans von Spakovsky Overrules DOJ Career Staff to Approve Georgia Voter ID Law Targeting Black Voters

| Importance: 8/10

Hans von Spakovsky, serving as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, led the department’s approval of Georgia’s controversial photo ID law in August 2005 despite unanimous objections from career Justice Department attorneys and …

Hans von Spakovsky Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Georgia Legislature Harold Murphy Career DOJ Attorneys voter-suppression voting-rights-act doj-politicization civil-rights-rollback judicial-oversight +2 more
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Fletcher v. Peck Establishes Judicial Protection for Fraudulent Contracts and Corrupt Land Deals

| Importance: 8/10

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Fletcher v. Peck that Georgia’s attempt to rescind the fraudulent 1795 Yazoo land sale violates the Constitution’s contract clause, marking the first time the Court strikes down a state law. Chief Justice John Marshall writes that while the bribery of …

Chief Justice John Marshall U.S. Supreme Court John Peck Robert Fletcher Georgia Legislature judicial-corruption contract-clause elite-protection land-speculation accountability-evasion
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Yazoo Land Fraud Represents Largest Corruption Scandal of Early Republic

| Importance: 8/10

Georgia Governor George Mathews signs the Yazoo Act, transferring 35 million acres in present-day Alabama and Mississippi to four land development companies for $500,000—approximately $0.014 per acre—in the largest land fraud perpetrated during the Federalist Era. Georgia’s Federalist U.S. …

Georgia Legislature Governor George Mathews Senator James Gunn Four land development companies land-speculation legislative-corruption bribery elite-corruption systematic-corruption
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