Page 22 - Preclearance News Today

This piece is essential. >> so this is the provision of the voting rights act called plea -- preclearance and let me give you an example that ive actually dealt with. say you get to be a couple of weeks out from election and all of a sudden, a municipality or a state start closing polling places and a majority minority neighborhood, making it much more difficult for people and their neighborhood to go out and vote while maybe its justified by voting numbers or maybe its the result of racial anim...

Under pre-clearance the state of bament alabama bam couldnt do that without the doj or a court in d.c. now they can make any changes they want to, they can prune people off of voter rolls, they can close polling places and the i.d. requirements that are so restrictive for voting rights so we need a return to preclearance if were going to keep people -- texas is a great example, the courts found there was intentional discrimination as some of the new rules were passed if were going to keep those ...

Happen across the country. >> thank you for having, me all. youre exactly right. that was part of the purpose of the 1965 voting act to begin with, especially section five doubles gutted several years ago. but the part of the purpose was to avoid exactly what we are seeing. avoiding that states would be able to take away our rights, or counties would be able to take away our rights and would have to find it county by county, and the justice department would have to correct the wrong. part of the...

But it really is up to congress to legislate, make things like going on in texas cant happen across the country. >> yes, ali. thanks for having me, and youre exactly right. that was actually part of the big purpose of the 1965 voting rights act to begin with, particularly section 5 which was eventually gutted several years ago. but part of the purpose was to avoid exactly what youre seeing, avoiding states would be able to take away our rights or localities would take away our rights and wed hav...

Pre1965. in many ways youve gone back to a jim crow republic where the states can enact all of these efforts to deny and dilute the rights of african-americans and other voters of color and the department of justice is now in a position of trying to seek them out and seek out the injustices. its costly, time-consuming, and relies on witnesses to bring information forward. thats why its so important that these federal bills be enacted, this that we see h.r. 1 pass, we see hr 4 passed. because alt...

Oral arguments in 2013 when they ruled against it which took the map out in terms of preclearance. you need that done by legislation. which would make it a process that they could have not done a lot of what theyre doing in these states to preclear it. absent that the only thing you can do in the interim is to aggressively go after lawsuits which the attorney general did today and reminiscent of history of robert kennedy wanted to deal with the voting rights act of 65. marshall said you have to ...

So. it is the great question and issue of this presidency and this time. >> so charlie sykes, we can obviously put s-1, the for the people act at joe manchins feet but you cant do that with the john lewis voting rights act that would restore the preclearance restrictions that were struck down. as jen notes correctly, all republicans are standing in the way of s-1 and all but lisa murkowski are opposing the john lewis bill. so what is the responsibility of some of the other republicans who watch ...

Al sharpton, michael eric dyson and neil. professor, your reaction? >> it is absolutely necessary for the attorney general to use the bully pulpit of his officer for ideas that protect american citizens right to vote. in 2013 with the rejection of preclearance as the predicate for judicial oversight it is even more necessary for legislators and the department of justice to vigorously pursue democracy and the right to vote for ordinary citizens and the shenanigans, the tricks deployed by republic...

Getting under way. and the democrat leading it, j.k. butterfield, starting off. with intersecting debates on capitol hill about voting rights. the first is over a bill known as hr 1, a sprawling democracy and lee election reform bill that would set a standard of voting rights in all 50 states. that bill has passed the house. it does not have a pulse in the senate. theres a separate debate going on, involving the john lewis advancement act that speaker pelosi says will be ready this fall, it face...

It is now? >> that wont address state legislative bodies that enacted regressive laws like in georgia. youre going to have a lot of voters harmed because of what theyve just done in georgia and in several other states. so we have to address the harm that has been implemented in state policy over the last two months as well as address issues around redistricting, how we make sure we get lines that are not so heavy polarized that we wont recognize congress in the next session. and we must also put...