VRA on Life Support

Dr. Henry Flores, NewsTaco

Today Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg accused the majority of the court in Shelby County of using the Voting Rights Act’s provisions to kill the act itself.  Today the majority of the court led by Chief Justice Roberts declared Section 4 of the VRA as unconstitutional.  Section 4 is the formula that declares which states are covered under Section 5, the preclearance requirement, in the VRA.  The court said Section 5 is fine, it’s only the formula that is wrong, it is outdated.

Section 4, according to the majority opinion, was reapproved by Congress in 2006, on outdated data.  The other issue the court noted is that African Americans now vote at higher rates than whites in six of the currently Section 5 covered jurisdictions.  Essentially, jurisdictions that are accused of violating the VRA are being judged on outdated standards.

Like I predicted, they didn’t strike down Section 5, the Roberts Court ruled narrowly, and they sent it back to Congress.

So, at least I’m a decent prognosticator.  The problem is, Congress.  Congress is headed by Congressman John A. Boehner, R-OH who is a weakling and subject to manipulation by the extremist wing of his party.  And, the extremist wing of the Republican Party has been leading the attacks on the Voting Rights Act.  So, not only did SCOTUS send the VRA back to Congress for review, they sent the VRA back to a Congress to kill the entire act!

I can see the current Congress reviewing Section 4 of the VRA and some right wing congressman saying “You know.  We need to take a closer look at this entire law because times have changed.  Blacks vote more than Whites.  The discrimination that existed in 1965 is gone.  We need to put all this racial discord behind us and eliminate a law that separates us by race.  The VRA just needs to go away.  I think we need to protect the voting rights of everyone so let’s do away with this law that privileges Black people.”

Yup!  The ruling in Shelby says that Blacks have overcome the old racism so we don’t need this law anymore.  At least we need to update the data upon which the VRA is based.

The problem is that the court ignored that when Congress reauthorized the VRA in 2006 they based their decision on more than 12,000 pages of testimony and data that were up to date.  Congress reauthorized the Act for 25 years so it would not review and update the data until 2031.  The court actually made an intriguing ruling in that it said that Congress is responsible for this law so Congress needs to make sure the law is appropriate.  At the same time the court said that Congress was wrong because it used outdated data.  So, I guess SCOTUS decides when Congress is right or wrong even though Congress is supposed to determine when it is right or wrong!  Oh well.  I used to tell my students that this type of behavior reflects the checks and balances in our political system but it really is a system that allows for the protection of the position of privilege enjoyed by those in power.  The court is simply acting on behalf of the power brokers in society and locking out the voice of a growing segment of the population.

SCOTUS ignored a long legal history of racial discrimination at the election booth not just in the seven jurisdictions of the south but throughout the United States when it made its decision today.  The majority forgot that the 2008 presidential election partly turned on voting in Ohio that was dogged by allegations of the manipulations of electronic ballots.  The court also forgot that this past presidential election was fraught through with problems that saw long lines of voters waiting to vote and being threatened with poll closures, voter identification challenges, throwing out of legal ballots, and other irregularities scattered throughout the country.

In taking such a narrow view of the law the Roberts Court, all five of them, not only created a situation that will allow for the death of the VRA but a return to an era when the vote can be manipulated by nefarious individuals.  We will return to an era where African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans will have to go through extra ordinary measures just to cast their ballot.

Bueno, I think it is time for some member of Congress or some group of concerned citizens to not worry about the Voting Rights Act that is specific to certain geographical areas or certain groups.  I think we need to put forth a National Voting Rights Law that prohibits certain actions in election structures anywhere in the nation and sets down a specific standard for how we identify and measure racial purpose.

[Image by DonkeyHotey]

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