Page 13 - Preclearance News Today

This meant protecting black americans seeking to exercise their right to vote from acts and threats of violence by white supremacists. the framers of the civil war amendments recognized that access to the ballot is a fundamental aspect of citizenship and self-government. the voting rights act of 1965 sought to make the promise of those amendments real, to do so it gave the justice department valuable tools with which to protect the right to vote. in recent years, however, the protection of the v...

Senators, call their senators and expressly say we need voting rights. never before in my lifetime have we had redistricting done without the full protections of the voting rights act of 1965. the john robert lewis voting rights act would fully restore the enforceability, which is preclearance for the most egregious, not every state, but the most egregious state actors. and if weve seen anything, alex, since shelby versus holder decision in 2013, in states after states especially after the 2020 ...

Senator manchin, is now the lead senator of now has all 50 senators on board. it has two bills that i introduced, that would protect election voters from harassment and intimidation. it would also limit arbitrary removal of local election officials, which is what you just described. of course, we also have the john lewis voting rights advancement act that if it were pass would repair the voting rights act. which would get us back into preclearance, to folks are wondering what that is, all these ...

President pence. let me ask you about georgia. there is going to be a legal challenge. the hill is noting a federal judge did -- rejected a request to dismiss a legal challenge to that law filed this spring by the naacp and other groups that argue the states new votes limits threatening to illegally suppress the vote of minority groups. republicans are moving right along ahead, right ahead with destroying democracy. what is being done on the ground to turn that back? >> yeah, well, joy, i want t...

America that it is a democratic president. democratic house. and then of course, a democratic senate. and that is where we have our most difficult times. we in the house have passed enormous important legislation. and you asked the question why it is different than a decade ago. my good friend, tom perez has the voting rights act. he had section five, ten years ago. it was abolished by the john roberts court. who miscued and misinterpreted a little bit of success. and suggested that section five...

Was completely gutted where preclearance was taken out, there arent many tools that the doj has to use. what theyre doing is theyre relying on section two, which is the remaining sort of standing section that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, on the basis of, you know, race or ethnic background, theyre using section two as their conduit to get to where they need to go. i dont know how successful its going to be because there are a number of different ways that they have to establish...

Rights bills because they knew the democratic party of that era could not be a partner in safeguarding those national rights and thats what has broken down that manchin and sinema at this point are still giving a veto to republicans who are unlikely to step in against what their fellows in the party are doing in the states. >> it is really -- it is so sad. charles, the doj is suing texas alleging that the republican-led state violated the voting rights act by drawing districts that discriminated...

Escobar. your reaction to what seems to be a classic case of gerrymandering. >> andrea, its so good to be on your program. thank you for having me. yes, this is an extreme example of what actually has been going on in other states as well. were seeing a very targeted strategic attack against our democracy, and one of those attacks runs right through texas with gerrymandering that is intended to silence hispanic voters, black voters, its intended to also create -- ignore, rather, the growth in ou...

Merrick garland says it violates the voting rights act. >> texas violated section two by recreating redistricting plans that deny or bridge the rights of latinos and black voters voting in account of their race. >> ken paxton calling the suit, "the latest ploy to control texas voters." how do you see this playing out? section six which was the original section that had the preclearance gutted in the infamous case of shelly verses holder. you cant redistrict any way and

Against this sort of thing, going back to the 2013 shelby case. do lawyers for the doj say they have a path given the current supreme court and the current standards established, weaker standards established by the supreme court? >> you know, i think what we saw yesterday from the doj was an acknowledgement that had the supreme court not weakened voting rights act that this lawsuit wouldnt have been necessary because the maps that texas drew wouldnt have passed legal muster under what used to be...