The Voting Rights Act has been described as the “crown jewel” of civil rights legislation. Its passage was secured with the courage, grit and blood of activists throughout the south, like Fannie Lou Hamer who endured beating simply for trying to register to vote in Mississippi, Medgar Evers who was murdered by a White supremacist, students Goodman, Cheney & Schwerner who went missing at the start of Freedom Summer 49 years ago, and Black voters in Selma, Alabama, who were beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It’s hard to imagine a piece of legislation with a greater pedigree and for which more people have fought and died than the Voting Rights Act. And yet in a 5-4 decision in a case called Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down last week a key provision of the Act. Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Congress designated particular jurisdictions is the U.S. that must obtain permission from a federal authority (either the Dept. of Justice or a federal court) before they enact voting changes that might have the effect of discriminating against minority voters. The jurisdictions are largely located in the south, although several boroughs in New York, parts of Alaska and Arizona are included as well. The formula which designates the jurisdictions to be covered is set out in Section 4 of the Act. The Court has declared that Section 4 unconstitutional. This essentially hollows out the foundation of Section 5
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:44:31 +0000
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