Voting Rights Act Should Be Struck Down To Boost Laws Suppressing Minority Vote .. GOP Attorneys General ..
By Ian Millhiser on Aug 24, 2012 at 11:20 am
The Republican attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas filed an amicus brief .. http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/POFR-Shelby-Co-cert-stage-amicus-various-states.pdf .. in the Supreme Court arguing that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. Significantly, the brief points to the fact that the Voting Rights Act impedes laws intended to make it more difficult for racial minorities to cast a ballot as a reason why Court should cast a skeptical gaze on the landmark voting rights law responsible for breaking the back of Jim Crow:
South Carolina and Texas, both Covered Jurisdictions, have not yet been permitted to enforce their voter-identification requirements, despite the fact that these laws are similar to the Indiana law upheld in Crawford. The DOJ denied preclearance for South Carolina’s voter-identification law. South Carolina has filed a declaratory judgment action, seeking reconsideration of DOJ’s preclearance denial. Trial begins on August 27, 2012.
Texas, like South Carolina, requested DOJ’s preclearance. Despite Texas’s responses to DOJ’s repeated requests for more information, DOJ still had not provided a preclearance decision six months after the State’s initial submission. By then, DOJ had rejected South Carolina’s similar law and, facing a likely similar rejection, Texas opted to file a declaratory judgment seeking preclearance. The DOJ eventually rejected Texas’s request for administrative preclearance nearly seven months after the initial submission. Trial was held from July 10 through 13, 2012, and Texas is awaiting a preclearance decision from the district court – more than a year after its legislature enacted the voter identification law.
On the evidence it is unequivocal the GOP ID laws are designed to suppress .. to 2-3% worth .. of the votes of "racial minorities, low-income voters or students". No argument at all.
Thank goodness for at least some of the courts:
Florida Voter Registration Groups Win Major Victory As Judge Prepares To Block Draconian Law