Key Takeaways:
- Trump nominee Josh Divine advocated for voter literacy tests linked to racist voting practices.
- Divine, now a top Missouri official, wrote in 2010 that only informed voters should cast ballots.
- Literacy tests were banned in 1965 for targeting Black voters.
- Critics fear Divine’s views could harm voting rights if he becomes a federal judge.
Who Is Josh Divine? Josh Divine is a lawyer nominated by former President Donald Trump to become a lifetime federal judge in Missouri. Currently, he serves as Missouri’s Solicitor General and Director of Special Litigation. Before this role, he clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and worked as chief counsel for Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri.
But while Divine’s resume seems impressive, his past writings have raised red flags.
Divine’s Controversial Past In 2010, when Divine was a student at the University of Northern Colorado, he wrote an opinion piece in the school’s newspaper, The Mirror. In it, he argued that voting should be restricted to people who pass literacy tests.
“People who aren’t informed about issues or platforms — especially when it is so easy to become informed these days — have no business voting,” Divine wrote. “That’s why I propose state-administered literacy tests.”
At first glance, this might seem like a harmless idea. After all, literacy tests sound like they’re about ensuring voters are informed. But the problem is much deeper.
The Dark History of Literacy Tests Literacy tests were once widely used in the U.S., especially in Southern states, to prevent certain groups of people from voting. These tests were not about fairness or information.