Voting Rights

As promised, and now that some time has passed, let's discuss what the U.S. Supreme Court did with regard to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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Getting back to the decision, the Court didn't kill the Voting Rights Act, but they did emasculate it to some extent. Prior to the decision, several states (mostly in the deep South and Arizona), and parts of others, had to get clearance from the Justice Department before implementing changes in their voting rules or laws.

The decision said that because much has changed since 1965, the pre-clearance section was unconstitutional.

While that makes no sense (what harm would it do anyone to get pre-clearance?) to me, neither - I think - is this a disaster for voting rights of minorities.

If it's still illegal - and it is - to pass a law that restricts the rights of African-Americans or Latinos to vote, people can bring suit and seek an injunction to bar the law from going into effect.

The reality is that states do try to restrict voting rights. Whether a state requires identification or closes polling places in minority areas, that works to restrict voting rights of racial minorities and/or poor people. Typically, these laws are passed by Republican legislators to reduce the number of votes in favor of Democrats.

But that doesn't matter.

If you restrict the right to vote, you're wrong, and should be subject to legal action based on the Voting Rights Act.

Another decision made recently by the Supreme Court established that an Arizona law requiring identification to vote in federal elections was contrary to the constitution, because it interfered with the federal law requiring less.

What next? Who knows? But this issue is not dead.

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