VOTING RIGHTS ACT (1): More than 24 hours after the Supreme Court left a gaping hole in the Voting Rights Act and invited Congress to fill that hole with new legislation, Congressional Republicans have no plan on how they might move forward. “The voting rights act has played an important role over the last 40 years,” House Speaker John Boehner said when asked Wednesday morning about the ruling. “We are reviewing the decision and trying to determine what the proper steps going forward are.” Democrats, on the other hand, have already signaled their support for drawing up new legislation. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy stepped up quickly to say how eager he was to work with his colleagues to “restore the protections” the Supreme Court’s ruling blocked. Of the handful of Congressional Republicans who have spoken out on the issue, few have provided any guidance on how they would like to proceed. South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham released a statement in which he said Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is “no longer necessary.” “Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was a necessary tool to preserve voting rights, but due to the reform and advances in South Carolina election law, it is no longer necessary,” said the statement. “The Supreme Court noted this tremendous progress in South Carolina’s electoral system and it was the underpinning of their decision. I concur with the Court that our state has made tremendous progress.” Graham believes Section 4 is no longer useful comes in spite of the fact that the Justice Department blocked the voter ID passed in his state in 2011 in part because of data that revealed the law would have a disproportional impact on black voters.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 21:00:52 +0000
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