Category Archives: Voting Rights Act

Travis Crum: “The Curious Disappearance of Shelby County”

March 27, 2020, 7:03 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Travis Crum: Earlier this week, the Supreme Court issued a decision that could have significant consequences for the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation applied against the… Continue reading

“National, Texas Democrats file lawsuit to keep straight-ticket voting for 2020 election”

March 5, 2020, 7:16 pmelection administration, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: After some Texans waited more than six hours to cast their ballot on Super Tuesday, national and Texas Democrats filed a lawsuit Thursday to block a state law that would eliminate straight-ticket voting come November.In a … Continue reading

“Trump’s DOJ Has Not Filed A Single New Voting Rights Act Case”

March 5, 2020, 9:31 amDepartment of Justice, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Tierney Sneed for TPM: The apparent refusal of President Trump’s Justice Department to engage in any meaningful, public enforcement of the Voting Rights Act has taken Republicans’ general hostility to the law to a whole new level. The DOJ has… Continue reading

“‘Bloody Sunday’ Commemoration Draws Democratic Candidates to Selma”

March 1, 2020, 7:35 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

NYT: residential candidates and prominent social justice activists descended on Alabama on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of the brutal attack on civil rights marchers here in 1965, one of the most violent episodes in the struggle for black participation… Continue reading

“Judge: Alabama’s method of electing appellate judges not discriminatory”

February 6, 2020, 4:09 pmjudicial elections, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

AL.com: Alabama’s method of electing appellate judges does not dilute the voting power of blacks, a Montgomery federal judge ruled Wednesday in a case brought against the state by the Alabama NAACP.The group contended that Alabama’s at-large elections of… Continue reading

Wow: 11th Circuit Rejects State of Alabama’s Argument That Congress Did Not Intend to Allow Private Litigants to Be Able to Sue for Violation of Section 2 of the VRA, But Judge Branch Remarkably Dissents

February 3, 2020, 5:55 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Crazy news on the 150th anniversary of the Fifteenth Amendment. States ordinarily have sovereign immunity against lawsuits without their consent. But Congress has the power to “abrogate” (or eliminate) that immunity through a statute. For decades, it has been unquestioned… Continue reading

Breaking: Divided En Banc 9th Circuit Holds Arizona Violated Voting Rights Act by Not Partially Counting Out-of-Precinct Provisional Ballots and Engaged in Intentional Racial Discrimination in Banning Collection of Absentee Ballots

January 27, 2020, 9:29 amelection administration, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

You can find the 432 pages of opinions at this link. I strongly suspect that the Supreme Court will take this case, which reversed a lower court and a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel. A finding of intentional discrimination is especially… Continue reading

“The New Voter Suppression”

January 23, 2020, 2:36 pmThe Voting Wars, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

New Brennan Center report: On Election Day in 1960, four unanswerable questions awaited Clarence Gaskins, a Black voter in Georgia looking to cast his ballot for president. Upon arrival at his designated polling place, he was ushered into a room… Continue reading

“NAACP Suit Says Rigged Voting System Favors Orthodox Jews in East Ramapo”

January 20, 2020, 1:52 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

New York Jewish Week reports.

For MLK Day

January 20, 2020, 8:23 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Here’s a piece I wrote for an MLK50 event at Memphis Law: Civil Right No. 1: Dr. King’s Unfinished Voting Rights Revolution.

Divided Fifth Circuit Rejects Argument of Dallas, Texas White Voters of Voting Rights Violation and Racial Gerrymandering; Judge Ho Partly Dissents, Seeking to Read Voting Rights Act More Strictly

January 17, 2020, 1:01 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

You can find the opinions in Harding v. County of Dallas at this link. Judge Ho’s partial dissent is significant in that it reads the Supreme Court’s 2018 opinion in Perez v. Abbott to add new requirements for plaintiffs… Continue reading

“Voting rights, representation and the future of democracy in the nation’s fruit basket”

January 7, 2020, 3:03 pmVoting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Nikkita Oliver on the aftermath of the VRA case in Yakima, Washington. And a similar story, also today, from Pasco, 90 miles down the road.

“Chief Justice Roberts warns we’re taking “democracy for granted.” His rulings haven’t helped.”

January 3, 2020, 4:34 pmcampaign finance, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Ian Millhiser critiques what he sees as a disconnect between the Chief’s year-end report on the judiciary and our democracy, and the Chief’s actions on the judiciary and our democracy.

“John Lewis and the need to preserve history”

December 31, 2019, 2:10 pmVoting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Brandon Tensley offers thoughts on the occasion of Rep. John Lewis’s announcement of his fight against pancreatic cancer – the most recent courageous fight of an iconic career. (We know that animal Twitter is heartwarming, sure. But if you’re… Continue reading