In a change of course, US Justice Dept drops challenge to Georgia voting law

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's Justice Department said on Monday it was pulling out of a lawsuit that challenges a Republican-backed Georgia election law as discriminatory, abandoning a position it took under Democratic President Joe Biden.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said recent increases in Black voter turnout in the battleground state refuted the lawsuit's claim that the 2021 law, which mandated new voting requirements, amounted to voter suppression.

"Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us," Bondi said in a statement.

The move was the latest in a series of actions by the Justice Department to end Biden-era civil rights actions and shift the focus of the Civil Rights Division to pursue conservative causes.

The law is also being challenged by several civil rights groups including the Georgia chapter of the NAACP, which said it would continue its effort.

"When the government drops the ball and turns a blind eye to injustice, we will step in," Gerald Griggs, the president of the Georgia NAACP chapter, told Reuters.

In a 2021 lawsuit, the Justice Department alleged that the law disproportionately harmed Black voters by limiting absentee ballots and banning the distribution of water or food to people waiting in line at polling places.

Georgia has denied the claims, arguing the law is aimed at securing elections. Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who serves as the state's top elections official, said the Justice Department's move shows the law "stands on solid legal ground."

Preliminary data from the 2024 election shows that while the total number of ballots cast by Black voters increased, the turnout gap between white and Black voters grew by about 3% from 2020 to 2024, according to the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Andy Sullivan and Hugh Lawson)