The Justice Department is preparing to take fresh legal action in a string of voting rights cases across the nation, U.S. officials said, part of a new attempt to blunt the impact of a Supreme Court ruling that the Obama administration has warned will imperil minority representation.
The decision to challenge state officials marks an aggressive effort to continue policing voting rights issues and follows a ruling by the court last month that invalidated a critical part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Justices threw out Section 5 of the landmark act, which protects minority voters by requiring certain states with a history of discrimination to be granted Justice Department or court approval before making voting law changes.
In the coming weeks, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to announce that the Justice Department is using other sections of the Voting Rights Act to bring lawsuits or take other legal action to prevent states from implementing certain laws, including requirements to present certain kinds of identification in order to vote. The department is also expected to try and force certain states to get approval, or “pre-clearance,” before they can change their election laws.
Good
Wouldn’t it be much easier for the Congress to write a bill outlawing all of these practices? In the end what can the Justice Department actually do? Pretty much nothing. More bread and circuses. Although the bread is getting harder and harder to come by.
Justice had better rethink that pre-clearance request. No court is going to reinstate a Section 5 remedy without action by Congress. We don’t want to re-visit the validity of the Voting Rights Act as a whole before this Supreme Court.
lless, which is where this might be going. By design. The 1% does not want us rabble to vote. In any kinda way. Anywhere in the world. And if we do and upset their plans they’ll stage a military coup like in Egypt and set things right.