Page 35 - Preclearance News Today

A shame if this law were to die. that was my reaction. they told our notoriously dysfunctional congress to revive it. today he introduced legislation that would reestablish a formula to determine which states must be cleared by the federal government before they change their election laws. the roberts court ruled that the old formula was unconstitutional because it was based on criteria established in the 1960s, striking down the heart of the most important civil rights law enacted, signed by ly...

Marie callenders. its time to savor. 2013 will go down in history as the year the united states supreme court gutted the voting rights act. in a 5-4 decision in june, they gutted the core of the law, that meant that nine states, mostly in the south, would be free to change their election laws without first getting preclearance approval from the federal government. we spent a lot of time this year talking about the potential and likely ramifications of this decision. now, on november 8th, we sa...

Department in december 2012. but then, the supreme court killed section 5 of the voting rights act in their 5-4 decision. and the mayor of pasadena, johnny isbel, made his move. >> he blatantly said at the first meeting we had, now that the preclearance from the voting rights act is gone, were going to redistrict the city. >> in the mayors own worlds -- >> the government can no longer tell us what to do. >> and the fact that council members dont care about citywide issues, the mayor put his own ...

>> it is rapidly changing social issue of certainly our lifetime. >> and so i think god knows where its going to be by 2016. by the end of this year already there are 18 states plus the district of columbia including states like utah that are -- that now have legal gay marriage. it may be much less of an issue than it is today in another 12 months, frankly. the courts continue acting. >> i think this was a big move for equal justice under the law. the supreme court once again reaffirmed there no...

It will be by the end of 2016. by the end of this year, theres 18 states plus the district of columbia, including states like utah -- >> right. >> -- that now have legal gay marriage. so it may be much less of an issue than it is today, just in another 12 months. >> mm-hmm. >> the courts continue acting and acting decisively. >> i think this was a victory for equal justice under the law. the supreme court once again reaffirmed theres no such thing as second-class citizenship in the united states...

Similar at-large plan, it was blocked by the justice department in december of 2012. but then the supreme court killed section 5 of voting rights act in their 5-4 decision in shelby v. holder. and the mayor of pasadena, johnny isbell, made his move. >> he blatantly said, now that the preclearance from the voting rights act and gone, were going to redistrict the city. >> in the mayors own words -- >> the justice department can no longer tell us what to do. >> so this summer, isbell, arguing that ...

Act. >> basically, without section 4 of the voting rights act, the preclearance is sort of gone. it still exists in section 5 but there are no states in it. its incumbent on justices to file lawsuits to get peoples -- right. section 5 is basically a zombie. state thats were covered are no longer covered, texas, north carolina, georgia, the states with the worst history of discrimination. they dont have to do this anymore. they can just put these laws into effect now that are discriminatory and t...

Perfect analogy. made a change from seven single member districts to two at large. >> sounds familiar. >> sounds similar. and doj determined that was going to have an impact. theres a concern about there being a discriminatory purpose. we see a similar thing in dallas, texas. i think -- this is not an unusual technique. the situation where the minority population is growing, you have districts and theres an attempt to say how do you stop that growth from impacting the outcome of the election. it...

Do? >> i think the resource is and i think there are people looking at whether or not theres a way to challenge in under section two of the voting rights act, the part of the act still there, that you can use to bring a lawsuit to say this action was purposely discriminatory. but those lawsuits take forever, chris, they take a long time, theyre expensive. if the plaint i haves have such a case and if they prevail, were looking at two years or many before were going to have a resolution. thats tw...

Supreme court voting rights. led by a 5-4 vote, it suspended the important, crucial section 5. nine states would be free the change their election laws without getting preclearance approval from the federal government. weve been talking for months about the potential of this decision and this week, we saw it play out in dramatic fashion on election day in one city in texas. pasadena, texas. a suburb of houston, sometimes calling stinkadina for the stink of its oil refineries. the setting, the ic...