Page 90 - Coverage Map News Today

Out of the game here. >> well, nobody is completely out of the game. part of the voeting rights act still intact gives anybody the right to sue if they they a sit or local government is discriminating at the polls. the problem with that is it looks to actions after theyve already happened. the power of preclearance was forbidding a state to make a change unless it could persuade the courts or the justice department that it wouldnt have the effect of being detrimental to minority voting. now your...

The five conservatives seemed to be quite skeptical. not only scalia and justice roberts but perhaps the critical vote justice kennedy. he said the times changed. he seemed to be skeptical that the law has not kept up with that change. now, its hard to predict, chris, but it does appear the voting acts right is in trouble tonight. now, what will the supreme court do? if they do look over the abyss and decide they are going to strike down part of the most successful civil rights act ever, they ma...

Over half of the successful voter discrimination lawsuits. suggesting its working where the problem is. but chief justice roberts, for example, pointed out that massachusetts has a worse record of registering and getting blacks to turn out to vote than mississippi does. suggesting that it doesnt fit where the problem is. so thats what i think the question is going to come down to here, martin. is the court going to strike the down the preclearance requirement? or perhaps the coverage map part of...

Not anl scalia and justice roberts but perhaps the critical vote justice kennedy. he said the times changed. chris, but it does appear the voting acts right is in trouble tonight. now, what will the supreme court do? if they do look over the abyss and decide they are going to strike down part of the most successful civil rights act ever, they may not strike down the preclearance requirement. that if youre a covered state you have to get permission from the federal government before you make any ...

If the supreme court says okay, the preclearance is fine in theory, but we are going to throw out the coverage map and send it back to congress, the question is, would congress have the political will to redraw the maps and do what it did in 1965 all over again and sit-down and say okay, lets look at which states are doing a good job and which states are doing a bad job. i cant answer that question. >> let me ask you this question. representative john lewis, who has been long involved in the civ...

Court. times have changed. has the law changed enough. what is at issue here is the key part of voting rights act that says states with a history of discrimination have to get permission in advance from the federal government before they make any changes at all in how they conduct elections. big changes like redrawing congressional district boundaries, little changes like moving the location of a polling place or the hours that polls are open. in the covered states they cant make those changes u...

Federal government. so this is a challenge to that. what the challengers say is, well, that may have been true in 65 and in the four times that congress has renewed it, but the law hasnt changed and times have. we have an african-american re-elected. we have more african-americans in congress and state houses. they say that the times have moved on, the burdens under this law are unconstitutional. >> and again, the court wouldnt take up this case unless they were -- there wasnt at least some move...

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