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Person

Ezra Rosenberg

Nationality:

American
Occupation:

Civil Rights Lawyer

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Ezra Rosenberg is a left-of-center lawyer and advocate for the abolition of voter identification laws among minority communities. He is currently co-director for the left-of-center Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which has sued Texas over the state’s attempts to remove non-citizens from the voting pool and require photo identification for voting. 1 Rosenberg has also advocated for the relaxing of signature-matching laws for mail-in ballots. 2

In Congressional testimony in January 2022, Rosenberg appeared to suggest that voter fraud laws are meant to harm minority voting rights and abilities, tying recent Supreme Court cases on voting rights and recent laws in conservative states to racist, Jim Crow-era voting restrictions. 3

Rosenberg was previously a partner at Dechert LLP, a law firm which promotes left-of-center pro bono work and company culture, where he was known for litigating civil rights lawsuits related to racial discrimination and minority issues. 4

Education and Early Career

Rosenberg obtained a bachelor of arts in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. He went on to attend the New York University School of Law, where he earned his law degree in 1974, and began practicing law as a public advocate for the state of New Jersey. In 1979, Rosenberg attained a position as the senior trial attorney with the Department of Justice, where he litigated cases for the Land and Natural Resources Division. After three years, Rosenberg left the DOJ for Katzenbach, Gildea & Rudner LLP, where he was a partner for eleven years before the firm was acquired by Fox Rothschild LLP in 1993. 5

In 1995, Rosenberg became a partner at the left-of-center law firm Dechert LLP, where he took on many pro bono lawsuits relating to civil rights laws. 6  His famous cases included defending a drug dealing rapper accused of murder, in which Rosenberg convinced the court not to admit violent rap lyrics as evidence. 7 During this time, Rosenberg was acclaimed in the National Law Journal on their 2014 “Pro Bono Hot List” and was included in Lawdragon’s 2014 list of top 500 lawyers. 8

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights

At the end of 2014, Rosenberg retired from private practice and joined the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where he has been Co-Director since mid-2015. Rosenberg claims that such laws are rooted in racial discrimination and take away “free and unfettered access to the ballot box” for minorities. 9

Rosenberg has characterized his opposition to voter ID laws as a fight for equality for the disenfranchised. His objective is to relax anti-fraud measures for mail-in votes and do away with in-person photo identification. In January 2022 testimony to Congress, he said such changes would constitute justice for the downtrodden. 10

In 2011 and 2021, Rosenberg won prominent cases against Texas laws. He first litigated Texas v. Holder in 2011, in which the plaintiff argued that Texas photo identification laws were excessive and designed to discriminate against minority Democratic voters while giving white Republicans an advantage in elections. 11 12 In 2021, Rosenberg acted as a lead plaintiff lawyer for the case Veasey v. Abbott, which argued that Texas’ revised voter ID laws needed to be reduced further. 13

Political Views

Rosenberg has repeatedly brought up his belief that voter fraud is a myth used to oppress minorities. He denies any evidence of voter fraud due to the relaxation of voter ID laws, making it clear that he believes racial inequality, not equality of opportunity, currently drives American law. In 2018, Rosenberg told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that federal institutions should step in when localities or states have a race-related dispute, and said that voter rights were at the most risk since the Voter Rights Act in 1965. 14

Rosenberg’s views are shared by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which styles itself nonpartisan, but which has a Twitter page expressing support for left-of-center causes such as legalized abortion. 15 The Lawyers’ Committee has vilified the conservative Trump administration, quoting a Tweet equating the administration’s criticism of the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots as attacks on peaceable minorities seeking justice and equality. 16

After his time at Dechert LLP, Rosenberg described himself as a longtime “private practitioner” in the fight against racial discrimination. 17 Up until about 2015, he did not openly take on discrimination cases of national significance except for the Texas photo ID lawsuits. Since then, Rosenberg has become freer with expressing his opinions on minority rights and voter ID laws. In his January 20th Congressional testimony, Rosenberg stated that “the attack on voting rights is a key to the larger crisis of American democracy,” and said this “attack” was meant “to transform elections” for “a faction seeking to monopolize power and exclude others.” 18

References

  1. Mike Scarcella. “5th Circuit upholds $6.7 mln in fees for plaintiffs in voting rights case.” Reuters. September 4, 2021. Accessed April 15, 2022.

    https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/5th-circuit-upholds-67-mln-fees-plaintiffs-voting-rights-case-2021-09-03/

  2.  Joy Borkholder. “Lawsuit By UCLA Voting Rights Project Follows InvestigateWest’s Reporting.” InvestigateWest. October 22, 2021. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.invw.org/2021/10/22/lawsuit-by-ucla-voting-rights-project-follows-investigatewests-reporting/
  3.  [1] Ezra Rosenberg Testimony, U.S. House of Representatives. “Securing Democracy: Protecting Against Threats to Election Infrastructure and Voter Confidence.” U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. Pages 16-17. January 20, 2022. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/rosenberg_testimony_cipi_12022.pdf
  4. “About.” Dechert LLP. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.dechert.com/about.html
  5. Ezra Rosenberg biography, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.lawyerscommittee.org/staff/ezra-rosenberg/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxtSSBhDYARIsAEn0thTWONLQ07XgdFs-76U8rFMGQMvFGWEfDf7exletwZbGFh4l5X5MynMaAg2bEALw_wcB
  6. News and Insights. “Ezra Rosenberg to Join Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.” Dechert LLP. October 28, 2014. Accessed April 18, 2022. https://www.dechert.com/knowledge/news/2014/10/ezra-rosenberg-to-join-lawyers-committee-for-civil-rights-under.html
  7. [1] Saskia de Melker and William Brangham. “New Jersey court strikes down murder conviction based on violent rap lyrics.” Public Broadcast Service. August 09, 2014. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nj-supreme-court-strikes-conviction-based-rap-lyrics
  8. Ezra Rosenberg, LinkedIn profile. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosenbergezra/
  9. News and Insights. “Ezra Rosenberg to Join Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.” Dechert LLP. October 28, 2014. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.dechert.com/knowledge/news/2014/10/ezra-rosenberg-to-join-lawyers-committee-for-civil-rights-under.html
  10. Ezra Rosenberg Testimony, U.S. House of Representatives. “Securing Democracy: Protecting Against Threats to Election Infrastructure and Voter Confidence.” U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. January 20, 2022. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/rosenberg_testimony_cipi_12022.pdf
  11. Brennan Center for Justice. “Texas v. Holder.” March 12, 2012. Brennan Center. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/texas-v-holder
  12. Camila Domonoske. “U.S. Appeals Court Finds Texas Voter ID Law Discriminates Against Minority Voters.” July 20, 2016. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/20/486776853/u-s-appeals-court-finds-texas-voter-id-law-discriminates-against-minority-voters
  13. Mike Scarcella. “5th Circuit upholds $6.7 mln in fees for plaintiffs in voting rights case.” Reuters. Accessed April 15, 2022.

    https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/5th-circuit-upholds-67-mln-fees-plaintiffs-voting-rights-case-2021-09-03/

  14. Meetings. “Business Meeting.” U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Page 82. February 02, 2018. Accessed April 18, 2022.

    https://www.usccr.gov/files/calendar/trnscrpt/Voting-Rights-Briefing-Transcript-02-22-18.pdf

  15. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Twitter account. Twitter. Posted April 16, 2022. Accessed April 16, 2022. https://twitter.com/LawyersComm/status/1515329385963921412?cxt=HHwWiIC5gYmDxIcqAAAA
  16. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Twitter account. Twitter. Posted April 15, 2022. Accessed April 16, 2022. https://twitter.com/LawyersComm/status/1515012190453088271?cxt=HHwWnoC-pe7js4YqAAAA
  17. [1] Meetings. “Business Meeting.” U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Page 82. February 02, 2018. Accessed April 15, 2022.

    https://www.usccr.gov/files/calendar/trnscrpt/Voting-Rights-Briefing-Transcript-02-22-18.pdf

  18. Ezra Rosenberg Testimony, U.S. House of Representatives. “Securing Democracy: Protecting Against Threats to Election Infrastructure and Voter Confidence.” U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. Pages 16-17. January 20, 2022. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/rosenberg_testimony_cipi_12022.pdf
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