work: he prepared discovery documents, joined Miner in taking depositions, and wrote memos. The case dragged on through the federal courts until 1998, long after Obama had left the firm for the state senate. The plaintiffs won—sort of. The U.S. District Court of Appeals ordered one Southwest Side ward redrawn to add more black voters. The Irish incumbent won the special election.
Most of Obama’s work at Davis, Miner had a racial or social-justice angle. He won an out-of-court settlement for a black medical equipment salesman who accused his employer of racial harassment. He sued a bank for redlining in black neighborhoods. Obama was deeply involved in a voting rights case, ACORN v. Edgar, in which he sued Illinois’s Republican governor Jim Edgar for refusing to implement the federal National Voter Registration Act. The act, better known as Motor Voter, required states to register voters at the library, the Public Aid Department, and the secretary of state’s office. It forbade purging voters who skipped an election. Given his leadership of Project Vote!, the case was a natural for Obama—a bridge between law and politics, as Project Vote! had been a bridge between community organizing and politics. Having worked with ACORN on Project Vote! Obama saw that registering poor folks would be that much harder if the state refused to obey Motor Voter.
Obama authored ACORN v. Edgar’s final brief, filing it on January 19, 1995, less than a month after Motor Voter took effect.
“ACORN as an organization is aggrieved by the State of Illinois’ failure to comply with the mandatory provisions of the NVRA by January 1, 1995, because such failure significantly impedes ACORN’s ability to effectively promote voter registration which would be much enhanced by the NVRA’s streamlined procedures for mail-in registration and agency-based registration at motor vehicle, public assistance, disability, and other designated offices,” Obama wrote.
“A significant number of ACORN members are registered to vote, but have not voted in the last two preceding calendar years because of a lack of candidates addressing their needs or for other reasons. These members wish to remain registered to vote and would be significantly harmed by being purged from the voting registration rolls, including being deprived of their rights to serve as jurors in federal cases. A significant number of ACORN members are not registered to vote, are not registered at their current residence addresses, or are likely to change their addresses in the foreseeable future. A significant number of ACORN members go to motor vehicle departments to obtain or renew drivers’ licenses, or go to state offices to receive public assistance or disability services. These members would likely register to vote or have their addresses upgraded on their current voter registration if the registration procedures were implemented at these offices in the manner required by the NVRA.”
The Republican-controlled state senate and the state board of elections countered that allowing people to register just anywhere would lead to vote fraud in Chicago—a timeless bugaboo for Illinois Republicans.
While drafting the brief, Obama organized meetings and traded faxes with a half-dozen other civil rights attorneys, soliciting opinions. But he was still a cub lawyer, and this was a hot case. Right after he filed, the League of Women Voters and the Justice Department jumped in. Obama stepped aside, allowing their lawyers to make oral arguments. In fact, he only spoke once during the entire proceedings, when he asked the governor’s attorney whether the state planned to comply with Motor Voter by setting up a two-tier system that would only allow people to register for federal elections at the secretary of state’s.
“Other people really took the lead in court,” Steve Melton, an attorney for the Cook County clerk’s office, would recall. “He was younger. Some of us were older than him. Other attorneys were from large firms, so it was natural to defer to them. Once the suit was filed, and it got some momentum, he still attended court hearings. It became evident early on that the judge was on our side. Others took more of a role in pushing the case forward.”
A federal judge ordered Illinois to implement Motor Voter. The victory won Obama some attention from a good-government group that would later support his political career: the Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization. As its doubly independent title suggests, IVI-IPO represents the anti-Daley strain in Chicago politics. The group is especially influential in Hyde Park, where it was founded. For his work on ACORN v. Edgar, Obama won the IVI-IPO’s Legal Eagle Award.