Sectionv News Today

This is what george stephanopoulos asked the mayor of indiana over the weekend. could a gay couple go into a florist florists shop and could the florist say "i dont sell flowers to gay people." >> lets talk about the bill itself. >> because the governor did not answer that. >> i saw that interview. he didnt answer it. lets talk about a couple provisions. we have to look to the legislation itself. look at section v. what does it say? "exercise of religion includes any exercise of religion whether...

Discrimination can do whatever they want. theres no stopping. the attorney general, no one can stop them. we had a 102-year-old woman at the state of the union address as a guest of the president of the united states who stood in line two hours to use and utilize her vote. you are telling people like that those lines are going to be there forever and longer. we are discouraging voters. this is absolutely unthinkable. >> reverend sharpton, to your point, what highlights the essentiality, the cour...

We still have a great distance to go. we hear the type of discussion that took place today, the question raised by one member of the court. when you travel through many parts of america and see people standing in unmovable lines, saying its hard and difficult for people to cast a vote, we still need section v. it is the heart and soul of the voting act of 1965. we cannot stop now and we will not stop now. we will not go back. >> congressman john lewis thank you for your time tonight. if it sound...

This process has been allowed to bail out of section v. its not static. they can bail in. that is jurisdiction that is violated the constitution can be brought under section five. this is a statute where congress sent out a theme and also imagine that some would be uncovered in the future and some not currently covered might become covered one day. >> lets take a hypothetical, which is not a hypothetical considering what happened in 2012. say a state or a county tries to prevent minorities from ...

The congress in 2006 met that question. congress conducted 21 hearings over ten months, heard from 90 witnesses for and against reauthorizing section v, established a 15-page record. congress recognized in the jurisdictions, more than 1,000 proposed discriminatory changes were blocked. >> the point is and the congressman has been out there, we marched, we did all kinds of efforts all over this country last year when they were changing voter id laws, photo id laws, all of a sudden, the photo id w...

Department of justice rejected it because it eliminated the citys sole african-american district by reducing the black population from 79% to 25%. they held an election in which the african-american councilman lost his seat because of section v. they held another election where he was restored. >> its an example of why we say we have come a long way, congressman, lewis. we have a long way to go. no one has seen it more than you. you were the youngest member of the leading organizations 50 years ...

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How is that an entitlement? i thought african-americans were citizens? for us to have the right to vote protected is an entitlement program? >> the right to vote is precious, almost sacred. it is the most powerful nonviolent instrument that we have in a democratic society. if the courts come to that point where they declare this section, section v of the voting rights unconstitutional, it will be a dagger. it will be a dagger in the whole process to open up our democracy and let all of our peopl...

Civil rights movements do it for, what people die for, what people bled for and those of us who marched across that bridge 48 years ago, we didnt march for some racial entitlement. we wanted to open up the political process and let all the people come in. it didnt matter whether they were black, white, latino, or native american. >> the voting rights act was put before congress after you and reverend william who is represented dr. king were beat on that bring in 1965 known as bloody sunday. it w...