The US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division will lead a lawsuit against the State of Georgia for a series of laws it passed quickly in March that severely restrict the ability of citizens to register to vote and cast ballots, it will announce Friday.

According to Mother Jones, the lawsuit will be led by two experienced civil rights attorneys from the DOJ:  Kristen Clarke, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Vanita Gupta, the associate attorney general.  Both of those appointees had their nominations challenged by Senate Republicans for their past advocacy for voter rights.

Within a 96 hour period in March, Georgia passed through the state house and state senate, and Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed, a law that imposed 16 requirements that limit the ability of people to easily register to vote, get an absentee ballot, and cast that ballot. 

Republicans have responded that the law actually expands voting access, but as it is written, those advantages would occur only in sparsely populated rural counties while limiting access in densely populated urban centers that are Democratic strongholds.

It would also make illegal assisting voters who are standing in line to vote by providing water and food to those waiting.  Local officials would also have less discretion to extend poll hours when there are problems with registration or voting machines, an increasing issue as machines and systems age.

Finally, the law gives the Legislature the ability to override local elections officials, effectively taking the management of elections out of the hands of local civil servants and allowing state elected officials to determine the final outcomes of elections.

The move comes as Republicans in Congress block S.1, a bill that reinforces voting rights for people across the country.