NAACP LDF: As part of our efforts to protect the right to vote across the country, LDF’s Political Participation Group wrote a letter to the Alabama Secretary of State, Jim Bennett, urging him to allow thousands of people to continue … Continue reading
By all indications Sen.Ted Cruz is a brilliant lawyer. So I take his mischaracterizing of the Supreme Court’s Shelby County case as being disingenuous and not simply misguided. Sen. Cruz writes: It is disturbing that new efforts are being made … Continue reading
HuffPo reports. I have no doubt about that. … Continue reading
See J. Christian Adams in the National Review. … Continue reading
Ellen Katz has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, A Nation of Widening Opportunities? The Civil Rights Act at Fifty, Samuel Bagenstos and Ellen Katz, eds., University of Michigan Press, 2014). Here is the abstract: This Essay relies on an … Continue reading
ProPublica reports. … Continue reading
On February 17 I noted that the DOJ page on Section 5 gave no indication that Shelby County had been decided and that section 5 was no longer being enforced against previously covered jurisdictions. The page has now been updated, … Continue reading
“No, ma’am. I don’t vote for black people. They got their place, I got my place.” –Lousiana voter, interviewed by NPR in Democratic Sen. Landrieu Walks A Fine Line In Red Louisiana (h/t Adam Serwer) … Continue reading
Ken Jost has produced a marvelous primer for CQ Researcher on voting controversies. You can purchase it as a stand-alone (or if you are part of a university or organization you may have a subscription). Here’s the abstract: Election laws … Continue reading
Amel Ahmed writes for TPM Cafe. … Continue reading
Press release: LDF and cooperating Louisiana attorney, Ronald L. Wilson, filed a challenge under the Voting Rights Act and the U. S. Constitution to Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana’s 32nd Judicial District Court. A Black candidate has never been elected as a judge on … Continue reading
Dan Tokaji has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Harvard Law & Policy Review). Here is the abstract: The immediate reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder was predictably fast, furious, and fissured. Some lauded the … Continue reading
At some point About Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act should probably be updated. After all, Shelby County was in June 2013. … Continue reading
The latest from Wisconsin. … Continue reading
National Journal reports. I would wager that it does not pass this year, despite the optimistic statements from the bill’s supporters. … Continue reading
MSNBC reports. … Continue reading
“It’s like a boot’s been lifted off the back of our neck.” –Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, speaking of what it has been like since Voting Rights Acr preclearance disappeared after the Supreme Court’s Shelby County decision. … Continue reading
Adam Serwer reports for MSNBC. … Continue reading
How can Eric Cantor come out in favor of the VRAA with the Wall Street Journal opinion page coming out so strongly against it? Without Cantor’s backing it is hard to see how it has any chance making it out … Continue reading
Mike Carvin and Hans von Spakovsky WSJ oped: “In reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision last June, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) have introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act … Continue reading
Jeffrey Toobin writes for The New Yorker. The full extensive piece is behind the paywall. Toobin’s take is similar to mine about the North Carolina and Texas cases (which Holder predicts the U.S. will win): … Continue reading
Here, on voter list maintenance. … Continue reading
I’m skeptical it is (just) cost. The tougher standard of winning a Voting Rights Act lawsuit under section 2 has a lot to do with it. … Continue reading
WSJ Editorial on the attempt to fix the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court decimated the provisions in Shelby County. … Continue reading
New report from the Center for American Progress. … Continue reading
Must-read Sean Trende post. … Continue reading
NY Law Journal: “A federal judge in Albany has ordered a trial on an issue that continues to perplex the federal appellate courts: Are black and Hispanic voters politically cohesive?” … Continue reading
NLJ: “Last year, part of the Voting Rights Act was weakened,” Obama said tonight. “But conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are working together to strengthen it.” Obama also touted the report of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration to address … Continue reading
Guy Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Voting Rights Act, the most successful civil rights statute in American history, is dying. In the recent Shelby County decision, the U.S. Supreme Court … Continue reading
Will Baude blogs for the WaPoVolokh Conspiracy. … Continue reading
Earlier today, Heritage Sr. Legal Fellow John Malcolm and I had a lively discussion on the Voting Rights Amendment Act and the Presidential Commission on Election Administration’s recommendations on NPR’s Tell Me More. You can listen here. My take in … Continue reading
“People have to understand that we are not opposed to photo identification in a vacuum,” he said, but it must not be used “to disenfranchise” people for racial or “partisan reasons.” While some GOP lawmakers may have a “good faith” … Continue reading
Gannett reports. … Continue reading
Ilya Shapiro at Forbes opposes the VRAA. … Continue reading
See this blog post. … Continue reading
Wed. at 10:40 am eastern, talking PA voter id and Voting Rights Amendments Act. As always media appearances subject to last minute change. … Continue reading
Josh Douglas writes for Slate. … Continue reading
Mary Orndorff Toryan for Gannett: “South Carolina will be one misstep away from renewed federal supervision of its elections if legislation to restore part of the Voting Rights Act becomes law.The bill introduced Thursday would rewrite the rules that would … Continue reading
NLJ reports. … Continue reading
Kevin Drum: And now for the big question: does this legislation have any chance of passing? It doesn’t seem likely. The shiny new formula might satisfy Justice Roberts, but it would put four deep-red states back into preclearance jail: Georgia, … Continue reading
Marcus Anthony Hunter has written this WaPo oped. … Continue reading
“[Justice Ginsburg's dissent in Shelby County] got it right when she said throwing out the existing process when it’s working and continues to work is like throwing away an umbrella in a rainstorm because you’re not getting wet…And now we’re … Continue reading
Jesse Rhodes and Avi Green write for TPM Cafe. … Continue reading
Andrew Cohen writes for Politico magazine. … Continue reading
Guy Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer has posted this interesting draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: There are two ways to read the Court’s decision in Shelby County, as a minimalist decision and as a decision that has undermined the … Continue reading
This is significant, given that Cantor was the most vocal person in the House Republican leadership to come up with a bill in response to the Supreme Court’s Shelby County decision gutting section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. MORE … Continue reading
Press release. … Continue reading
McClatchy NAACP (with a lukewarm response) Roll Call MSNBC Gannett NPR National Journal TPM LA Times The Guardian AP Sen. Leahy press release Washington Times Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel TIME Think Progress Roger Clegg CBS NBC Brennan Center CLC AFJ … Continue reading
I expand on my thoughts from earlier today in my new piece on the front page of the Huffington Post, “A Bipartisan Voting Rights Act is Possible.” Some excerpts . . . Conventional wisdom among some liberals, conservatives, and moderates … Continue reading
I have now had a chance to review the text the Voting Rights Amendments Act of 2014 introduced today by Representatives Sensenbrenner and Conyers (with parallel legislation being introduced by Senator Leahy in the Senate). I believe parts of the … Continue reading