“Communities Find Relief From Voting Rights Act”

NPR: “Over 21 years, attorney J. Gerald Hebert handled more than 100 civil rights cases as the Justice Department’s point man enforcing the Voting Rights Act. Now, he helps governments gain release from the law’s central mandate.  In election law circles, he’s known as the “Bailout King.” No lawyer has guided more counties and cities with a history of voter discrimination to “bail out” from federal oversight of their local elections. Hebert’s prolific work was cited in a dissenting opinion by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Hebert, 63, uses a largely unknown exemption, or “bailout,” in the 1965 statute to help communities that have closed painful chapters in their pasts.”

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