Category Archives: Voting Rights Act

A Historical Perspective on the Current Voting Rights Battles

July 16, 2021, 4:47 amVoting Rights ActDan Tokaji

From Jamelle Bouie: For as much as Jim Crow dominates our collective memory of voting restrictions, it is the attack on suffrage in the North in [the] last decades of the 19th century that might actually be more relevant… Continue reading

Today’s Hearing on the Implications of Brnovich

July 16, 2021, 4:26 amlegislation and legislatures, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Here are the witness list, written testimony, and video link for the hearing before the house House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties at 1:00 ET. Scheduled to testify: Mr. Sean Morales-DoyleActing Director, Voting Rights… Continue reading

“Texas Democrats find voting rights are a tough sell as Capitol Hill turns its focus to Biden’s economic agenda”

July 16, 2021, 4:20 amlegislation and legislatures, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

WaPo reports: “Texas state legislators … arrived in Washington just as the congressional Democrats they are trying to prod into action on voting legislation have turned their full attention toward a trillion-dollar infrastructure deal and a potentially historic $3.5 … Continue reading

Senator Mike Lee Demanded That Sen. Padilla and I Apologize for Saying Justice Alito’s Brnovich Decision Goes Against Textualism and Is Not Faithful to the Voting Rights Act; I Doubled Down on the Claim

July 15, 2021, 4:22 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

This all happened at Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing on voting rights after Brnovich and Shelby County. You can watch Senator Padilla ask me the initial question in the video at the 2:56:42 mark. Senator Lee’s rant, where he… Continue reading

“On Voting Rights, Justice Alito Is Stuck in the 1980s”

July 15, 2021, 5:07 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Linda Greenhouse on Brnovich: Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion for the six-justice majority insisted that the law should pay little mind to the occasional “inconvenience” of casting a ballot. Justice Elena Kagan’s dissenting opinion, joined by two other justices, accused… Continue reading

“Biden must embrace his own logic on voting rights”

July 15, 2021, 4:50 amlegislation and legislatures, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

E.J. Dionne: Biden’s speech assailing “merchants of fear and peddlers of lies” was refreshingly candid about the threats posed to democracy. They include the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Donald Trump’s scandalous falsehoods about the 2020… Continue reading

“Biden’s Demagogic Voting Speech”

July 15, 2021, 4:45 amlegislation and legislatures, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Rich Lowry of National Review, in Politico Magazine: The presumption that marginal changes in election laws measurably affect turnout, a key assumption of the Democratic case against GOP election bills, is simply erroneous. Voter ID laws haven’t suppressed turnout… Continue reading

“More than 150 companies back update to Voting Rights Act”

July 14, 2021, 1:10 pmVoting Rights ActDan Tokaji

NBC News: More than 150 companies, including PepsiCo, Amazon and Target, threw their support behind updating the Voting Rights Act in a letter released Wednesday.The signatories, all U.S. employers, urged Congress to enact the John Lewis Voting Rights… Continue reading

Read My Testimony Before Senate Judiciary Subcommittee for Hearing on Voting Rights After Brnovich and Shelby County (and Link to Livestream of Hearing)

July 14, 2021, 10:51 amlegislation and legislatures, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

You can find my testimony at this link. All of the testimony will be posted here, and you can use the same link to watch the hearing starting around 2:45 pm ET.

“By Choice and Circumstance, Democrats Put Voting Rights on the Ballot”

July 13, 2021, 8:47 pmelection subversion risk, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

NYT: [E]ven many commentators who have expressed concerns about the integrity of future elections have criticized the push for the For the People Act as fighting the last war….“There are really two different issues going on,” said Richard L.… Continue reading

“Biden rips Trump’s ‘big lie’ in voting rights address”

July 13, 2021, 1:11 pmelection subversion risk, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

The Hill: President Biden on Tuesday decried inflammatory and false claims from former President Donald Trump and his allies about the 2020 election and broader efforts to restrict access to the ballot in a major speech on voting rights….“It’s clear,… Continue reading

“Biden to call for ‘a new coalition’ to defend voting rights”

July 13, 2021, 4:01 amlegislation and legislatures, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Politico: In a high-profile voting rights speech Tuesday, President Joe Biden plans to “blast the denial of the right to vote as grounded in autocracy, undemocratic, un-American, and unpatriotic,” a White House official shared with POLITICO. …While Biden’s speech… Continue reading

“The Biden administration needs to take democracy issues much more seriously”

July 12, 2021, 5:29 amVoting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Perry Bacon, Jr. in WaPo: “Biden has been an excellent president on many issues. But so far, he’s fallen short on democracy defense — and that is the most important issue, the issue that his presidency is for, after his… Continue reading

“Democrats craft voting bill with eye on Supreme Court fight”

July 11, 2021, 9:02 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

AP: Democrats face dim prospects for passing voting legislation through a narrowly divided Congress, where an issue that once drew compromise has become an increasingly partisan flashpoint. But as they look to reinstate key parts of the Voting Rights… Continue reading