we must pass voting rights protection in the senate. the senate must do their job. we re going to see this happen over and over, if in fact members of the senate don t develop courage and stand up and protect our constitution and protect the right to vote. you know, on that notion, you mentioned the idea of almost this notion of a post-racial world that was alluded when section 5 was gutted. and the idea of turning a blind eye. rick, republicans would argue, and let s play devil s advocate, we should have race-blind mapping here. you shouldn t be taking into consideration the race. certainly there is racial bloc voting, the idea of having enough concentration of power to elect a candidate of your choice, not having that voting strength diluted. and having the opportunity to vote for the winner. what do you say to the argument
gentlemen, i m glad you re here. i was a voting attorney in the civil rights division of doj. and i can t believe we re finding ourselves time and time again in a world that feels a lot more like 1964 than 2022. i want to begin with you, rick. people have heard the news, they ve heard about what gerrymandering is, with the alabama map. help us go deeper and contextualize why this is being looked at on a shadow document, for example. what do you say, rick? back in 2013, the supreme court killed a key part of the voting rights act, section 5, that would have required alabama to go to the department of justice and show that they wouldn t make minority voters worse off. but they said, don t worry, section 2 of the voting rights act, that was amended in 1982,
is all taking place, the redrawing of maps to be more in line with the accurate data of the actual populations. and the concern is, the new supreme court ruling could actually greenlight other states to try to manipulate maps in ways to put voters of color at a disadvantage. how often have we seen this happen, in the course of recent history, and prior to and since 1965. what is the fix now that two voting rights bills are dead on arrival in the senate? is let s turn to rick haasen, the author of the new book, cheap speech: how disinformation poisons our politics. also with me, derek johnson, president of the naacp.