Day 157: "Particular cruelty."

1/ The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against Georgia, alleging that the restrictions from its new voting law purposefully discriminate against Black Americans. Georgia’s Election Integrity Act, which was passed the Republican-led state legislature on a party-line vote and signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in late March, changed how voters can cast their votes, imposed new limits on the use of absentee ballots, made it a crime for outside groups to provide food and water to voters waiting at polling stations, and handed greater control over election administration to the state legislature. “Our complaint alleges that recent changes to Georgia’s election laws were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color, in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. Kristen Clarke, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said several of the law’s provisions “were passed with a discriminatory purpose” that would disproportionately “push more Black voters to in-person voting where they will be more likely than white voters to confront long lines.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Politico / Wall Street Journal / ABC News)

2/ Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 years and six months in prison for murdering George Floyd. Chauvin was convicted in April on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He faced up to four decades in prison – prosecutors had asked for 30 years – and could get out on parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence, or about 15 years. Judge Peter Cahill went beyond the 12 1/2-year sentence prescribed under state guidelines, citing “your abuse of a position of trust and authority and also the particular cruelty” shown to Floyd. Separately, Chauvin and the three other former officers present for Floyd’s murder are also facing federal civil rights charges. (Associated Press / NPR / Bloomberg / New York Times / Washington Post / Axios / Wall Street Journal)

3/ The bipartisan infrastructure deal is now in jeopardy after Republicans complained they were “blindsided by Biden’s efforts to simultaneously pursue both the bipartisan deal and a package of Democratic priorities that can pass via reconciliation without GOP support. Yesterday – when Biden <a href="https://whatthefuckjust...