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Subscribe to RSSThe Supreme Court will decide whether or not to scale back the landmark Voting Rights Act, which requires states with a history of discrimination at the polls to get federal permission before making any changes in how they conduct elections. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
Agreeing to hear another important case on race in America, the Supreme Court said Friday it will take up a battle over a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act. Civil rights groups fear the court will use this case to gut the law.
Passed by Congress in 1965 and renewed four times since then, most recently in 2006, a key provision requires states with a history of discrimination at the polls to get federal permission before making any changes to election procedures -- from redrawing congressional district boundaries to changing the locations of polling places.
The law was at the core of the legal cases this year blocking strict new voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina.
Shelby County, Ala., claims the pre-clearance requirement -- which currently covers nine entire states, 12 cities and 57 counties elsewhere -- is unconstitutional. Under the law, those states and areas are presumed to be acting improperly whenever they seek election changes and "must either go hat in hand to Justice Department officialdom to seek approval, or embark on expensive litigation in a remote judicial venue," says the lawyer for the county.
The areas covered by the law, Shelby County says, include some localities that have made substantial reforms while missing other parts of the country that have failed to root out discrimination at the polls. "Florida has been forced into pre-clearance litigation to prove that reducing early voting from 14 days to 8 is not discriminatory, when states such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania have no early voting at all," the county says.
But the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund says the current map is a close enough fit to cover the areas of greatest concern. "Congress is not a surgeon with a scalpel when it acts to legislate across the 50 states. But it can reasonably attack discrimination where it finds it," the group says.
Three years ago, the Supreme Court narrowly rejected a challenge to the pre-clearance requirement but strongly suggested that several justices had doubts about its constitutionality, given recent electoral reforms. "Things have changed in the South," the court said in 2009. "Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare."
Last month, the Supreme Court heard another racially charged case, re-examining whether the nation's colleges can use affirmative action in admissions.
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The greatest threat to democracy is the Republican Supreme Court.
This election went off without a hitch, no voter fraud. But is was different this time because though 60% of white voters (including democrats) voted for Romney, he got his clock cleaned. And the scares the hell out of most white people.
So they are trying to used the Republican Supreme Court ( which consist of 5 conservative judges, 4 white males + one uncle Tom) to sway things in their favor.
My Belief is that that the Republican Supreme court will uphold the voter Rights law of 1965 by a 6 to 3 decision. Because there is no precedent that exists to justify overturning it.
Given the shameful behavior of state Republicans to restrict voting hours and challenging voters that dont look like them , more laws are needed not less. Ohio is a good example of how a Republican legislature set up voting districts to make sure Republicans would win and a Secretary of State (Husted)who tried to restrict hours in Democrat districts.
click> Jimmy Carter's grandson strikes again
With Obama's win, the politics of division and racism have been rejected on a National level.
But the Republicans continuing to challenge the fundamental right of voting shows that racial hatred still persists in very specific areas of our country.
Blame it on the top three Rockefeller, Morgan and Carnegie.
Read below to find out more.
"With Obama's win, the politics of division and racism have been rejected on a National level."
hahahahahahahhahahahahahah
hahahahahahahahahahahahahah
hahhahahahaahhaahahahahahah
With Obama's win, the politics of division and race-baiting was given a slight nod of approval on the National Level.
These Dems and their accusing others of what they do is always so hilarious. Like the phony voter suppression lie they came up with to scare black people into the polling booth--record turnouts of blacks of course.
I agree with what Harbinger-2218646 wrote--
yahtc
I would hope you are right.
But I would suggest you watch the Obama 2016 movie.
Romney was the dude that needed an voters ID card because we didn't know which Romney was voting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can you believe that there are still scam operations involving trying to have Obamacare overturned at the Supreme Court level still making calls asking for money to fund getting rid of Obamacare?
If someone calls you asking you for money in support of overturning Obamacare laugh at them and hang up.
Obamacare cannot be overturned by any means because the Supreme Court ruled it Constitutional unlike the scammers calling you to ask you for money in support of having the law overturned.
Once again the GOP continues to fight a battle that has backed them into the corner of scams.
Congress can repeal the law. Duh.
The Big Three - The real problem in America.
Last night I watched documentary on the History Channel about the Mckinnley and Bryan Presidential race.
The documentary went into detail about how Morgan, Carnegi and Rockefeller all well known names in America went on a mass spending spree to buy the election. Back then they were Big Industry and were also Republicans.
They wanted a President that they could control to further their manipulation of the country to suit their whims.
Sound like Romney?
In the episode it showed one of three looking over Mckinnley's speech and crossing out various portions of the speech that Mckinnley had written. These men had bought Mckinnley and used him as his puppet to further their own agenda over that of the American people.
These three business also made the same comment that Ann Romney made during the campaign.
"We built it!"
Basically the supporters that tried to have Romney elected used the same tactics that they did back then. Fear. Harassment. Saying that Obama like Bryan was going to destroy America if elected and if Bryan had been elected that there would be no reason to show upto work the next day because such jobs would be gone.
The same campaign was used by Romney and Ryan saying that Obama was sending jobs overseas and if he was re-elected jobs would continue to be lost. This campaign tactic was once again put to use in Ohio especially in Canton, Ohio where Mckinnley was from where there is also a Koch Knight Factory. Everyone knows Koch Knight is part of the Super Pac of businesses that think that they, like Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller run America and the government and that they were the ones who built America.
The fact of the matter is this America.
The real Americans who built America are the ones who goto work everyday. America was built upon the demand of a better lifestyle than that of the previous generation but more importantly the fact that America had won its freedom from oppression designed an American society that would spend nothing less than the entire country to keep such freedoms.
Freedoms that men such as Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller would take away in an instant to pronounce theirselves Kings and High Rulers of America.
Sorry, GOP, America isn't that stupid to think of ourselves as lowly workers.
We are America.
How sad that GOP's campaign relies on tactics used over 70 years ago where large amounts of wealth and fear won the elections for the GOP.
Its also sad to say that when a party has to resort to such tactics that their party really doesn't have anything else to offer in the way of intelligence which is also a sign that a party is failing and is on its way out the door.
The GOP can thank Morgan, Rockefeller and Carnegie for their defeats.
The American worker on the other hand can thank theirself for the country they have and can blame the top three for all of problems that exist.
Wow, three dead men are to blame for everything that is wrong today.
How messed up would it be if they were actually alive?
But wait, you did not say. Are they still living? Are they just brains in a downtown Chicago building manipulating the control of the country?
Wanna know who killed JFK?
After watching the documentary on Morgan, Rockefeller and Carnegie last night on the History Channel and their lust for power and control in America where they would go to any lengths to topple the government of the People if the government was not ran by them I am going to have to say that Mckinnley was assasinated by someone paid by the top three in order to spin a conspiracy around Democrats to make Americas fear the Democrats in order to continue to get the votes they needed for the president that they wanted elected.
Since all three men were uber egomanics and would not stop at nothing to be at the top I would also have to speculate that they were involved with the assasination of JFK and the attempted assasinations of Reagan and Bush. Remember someone threw a grenade at Bush during one of his campaign speeches.
What do all three men have in common?
They were all proponents of space exploration. A notion that would put them in the spotlight and above Carnegie, Morgan and Rockefeller of who above all else wanted to be seen at the top of everything in America.
Since these three presidents were proponents of space exploration which put such a political design above the top three men anytime Americans looked up and into space they would remember those who put those stations and rockets there and not Morgan, Carnegie or Rockefeller which in the uber ego sense would make these three men's status and image nothing more than mere side show attractions but above all else it would put the government leader in a higher place of favor with the American people than Morgan, Carnegi or Rockefeller could ever hope to achieve.
I have a question for those opposed to voter ID being shown at the polls:
Voting is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, and it says nothing about ID. Is that why you are so opposed to it?
The right to bear arms is also a right guaranteed by the Constitution, and it says nothing about showing ID to own one.
If you are opposed to voter ID to exercise your constitutional right, shouldn't you ALSO be opposed to ID for gun ownership to exercise your constitutional right?
It would appear to be hypocritical to demand ID for one Constitutional right but not for another.
click> Harvard's Alexandar Keyssar analyzes voter suppression measures ....
In this article, Keyssar writes
Keyssar points out
.
Click> Voter Suppression - Mother Jones
click> Benjamin Todd Jealous: The Voter Suppression We Ignore at ...
"Florida has been forced into pre-clearance litigation to prove that reducing early voting from 14 days to 8 is not discriminatory, when states such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania have no early voting at all," the county says.
Florida's election process is a nightmare. It is Republican discrimination in action. The responsibility for elections in Florida should be taken away from the state and run by the Federal Government. Florida election officials are blatanly criminal.
I live in New Jersey where there is no early voting. Even though we had a hurricane and three polling places were moved into one location that had only generators for power, I was able to vote in about a half an hour. Florida on the other hand had people standing in line for 12 hours for no particular reason, save Republican attempts to discourage voters.
Since politics now rule the supreme court I doubt that we will be seeing any supreme court decisions made from the study of our what the writers of the constitution intended. Power breeds corruption.
If voting is a right defended against discrimination by the Federal government, evidence exists that new requirements for voting and a cutback on times for casting early ballots are being pushed for by only one of our two major parties. There also is sufficient evidence that the changes being pushed by Republicans will disproportionately affect certain demographic groups of the voting populace. While you may argue whether there is racist or partisan intent behind these moves, the effect that these measures have is to disenfranchise certain groups of voters, particularly according to race. This suggests that, instead of rolling back the Voting Rights provisions, they should be extended to all states. That would be fair. Any constitutional lawyers around here?
Like we don't know how this will turn out. The S.C. rules what the White House says it will rule. They are no longer an independent court or a S.C. They rule how they are told to rule.
If this were so, the Supremes never would have made the Citizens United decision.
Trust me, I live in Texas and was (years ago) a republican county chairman. The Texas gerrymandering was totally racial. They got five new congress seats primarity due to hispanic gains, then gerrymandered the districts to minimize their importance.
The opposite is happening at the state level in Illinois, where Democrats control both chambers of the legislature. Naturally, the redistricted map favors Democratic incumbents. And four Congressional seats changed hands from Republicans to Democrats on Tuesday. If your party has a hold on the state, you don't want the redistricting rules to change, but the Republican party wanted the the Supreme Court to hear its case against gerrymandering, which the Court refused to do. The case the Republicans first tried to make before the district court, by the way, was based on the disenfranchisement of Hispanic voters...by the Democrats.
The Democrats in Texas are mad because they used to rig the districts so they always had an unfair advantage, and don't like getting their own medicine......
before Tom Delay, the Democrats had such a fraudulent map that they got half the districts in a state that used to go 60% Republican.
The Texas map is a little unfair to the minority Demoncat party in the state...the Illinois criminals in the Democratic Party have rigged the districts unfairly too, so have Dems in Massachusetts, their district map looks like something that was spit up during a bout with bronchitis
We do need fairly drawn up districts in many states, the goal should be to roughly approximate how the voters of the state vote. If your party gets 53-54% of the vote usually, you shouldn't get 4 out of 5 House seats...you should get 3. They should be drawn up so that they roughly approximate voters' views, and there's a couple close districts so that when one party does well they have the chance to hold a majority of the state's seats.
Yes, that's because they were Southern Democrats who were in the Democratic Party.........those Southern Democrats have now switched and hijacked the Republican Party.
Below is what a poster named TJefferson wrote on the page before this--
All Black People Everywhere, Who Are Registered Citizens, Have Full Voting Rights, and No One is Trying to Take Them Away
When you hear Democrats talk about mythical voter suppression, they're doing one of 2 things:
a) protecting Voter Fraud
b) race-baiting to make sure blacks keep voting for them 90% +
Another rotten tactic, from a rotten, worthless party
Here is 2004 example of how the 1965 Voting Rights Act helped against an attempt in Waller County, Texas to suppress the vote--
The above is an excerpt from a report entitled The Voting Rights Act at Work 1982-2005 by The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act ...[This Commission was created by The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights]
To read the complete report click > protecting minority voters - The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights ...
8 days is more than enough to vote. If we can make the voting process quicker, great, but places like Florida allegedly had a million things on the ballot and each one was like 8 pages or something.
Since we know a large chunk of the Democratic party are neanderthals on handouts, a long ballot can be problematic for them, just like that "confusing" butterfly ballot in 2000, which a 12 year old could figure out (google it online and look at images)
Florida and some other states need many more voting booths at many more locations.
click> Coalition calls for Florida voting changes, federal investigation
.
also --
The New Jim Crow - The Daily Beast
Seeded on Mon Nov 5, 2012 2:05 PM EST ()
"Whatever the result tomorrow, voter suppression is one of the big stories of this campaign and its enduring scandal. The Republican Party before 2012 was a party that certainly did not want black and brown and poor Americans voting, so it's long been officially racist and classis …"
Under this thread Sistahgirl writes---
For complete article click> the-new-jim-crow.html
"The situation has attracted attention all across the nation. Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid weighed in, issuing a statement of his concern: "All of the votes in Arizona must be counted promptly, accurately and equally. The uncounted votes in Maricopa County alone represent a major portion of the total votes cast in Arizona on Tuesday." He also pointed out that this problem occurs just as the Supreme Court is ready to consider whether the voter protections in 1965′s Voter Rights Act should be scaled back. Specifically, the justices are being asked to rule that the part that prevents states from disenfranchising minorities is no longer relevant."
"While Secretary of State Bennett tried to attribute the record-setting proportion of uncounted ballots to redistricting, the civil rights groups smell voter suppression.
After all, Maricopa County gave out incorrect voting information to Latinos before the election, Jeff Flake's senatorial campaign spread misinformation about polling places in robocalls and, in 2008, the ACLU called Pima County (Tucson metropolitan area) tops in the country for CLICK THIS LINK> voter suppression because officials threw out 18% of the provisional ballots cast."
Link - outrage-builds-as-arizona-continues-to-count-votes
After this Florida fiasco, and GOP reps admitting they wanted to make it harder to vote, and all the voter supression attempts, I am amazed the law wasn't extended to all states!
The voter fraud issue,primarily focused on latinos, is one more example of how the GOP disrespects us There is the widespread presumption that all latinos are illegals who should not be here. There are in fact many of us whose ancestors were in what is now the US before many of the self-anointed "Real Americans" questioning our legitimacy. Hell, some of us have ancestors that were here before there was a USA, and even before the Mayflower.
Thanks for you insightful post, CAL USA.
California has had a history of redistricting which has weakened the latino vote:
To read the complete report click> protecting minority voters - The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights ...
I find it fascinating that all democrats belive that the GOP is involved in voter fraud when Chicago and Philadelphia are the biggest areas of voter fraud in the US; and those areas are heaviliy controlled by democrats. I also finfd it interesting that certain people want the "conservative" element thrown out of the Supreme Court. I appears that "some people" are afraid of a little dissention. If you want everyone to be the same, then go to China.
Any ruling should be considered based on its benefits to every Americans ability to have their vote recorded. No ruling should ever be considered only for what is good for individual states benefits or rights, the state is second to the citizen. Our federal, state and local election laws, rules and standards should all be crafted to increase voter turnout, to increase the number of days and hours available for voting, and to insure everyone that wishes to vote gets the chance to do so, within a reasonable time frame, and that those votes can be recorded as legitimate.
I agree with you, oppie, when you write--
That is it in a nutshell.......and until that happens everywhere, we still need the 1965 Voting Rights Act to deal with violations or new gimmicks that are intended to suppress voters' rights.
Requiring ID to vote seems perfectly reasonable and non-discriminatory as long as it's done fairly. The time to enact voter ID laws is now, with the next election years away, not just before the election as was tried in several states. If there is not a push now to enact such laws, it will be obvious that the recent flurry of "election reform" was indeed politically motivated to suppress voting by certain sectors, and not a genuine concern with preventing voting fraud.
GOP's push to suppress vote threatens democracy - CNN.com
Voter Suppression - Mother Jones
Charlie Crist: Rick Scott's Refusal To Extend Florida Early Voting Is ...
I am so glad that somebody is actually paying attention to this very crucial issue. I really wish they would give it more air play as Justice Roberts has decided to bring a law that went into effect in 1947 for review. After what I have seen and had to go through just to vote in Florida since I moved here 20 years ago, I can only say that it would really be great to not feel like my vote didn't count again. I understand the story about two generals that have let these wars drag on for years have gotten caught with their pants down is very exciting, but I really want to scream at the media for continually falling into these idiotic sex scandal red herrings. Pay attention to what really matters, please. Our vote is the backbone of this country. Without it, we are nothing. Please pay more attention to the Supreme Court review of this law. It means everything. Thank you
Understanding the Burden of Photo ID Voter Laws
by: mooncat
Thu Jul 19, 2012 at 10:58:00 AM CDT
The Brennan Center for Justice has just released a new, must read, report , click> The Challenge of Obtaining Voter Identification, that focuses on 10 states with restrictive voter ID laws -- Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
The information included about Alabama is shocking:
Beyond the difficulties of travel and acquiring the necessary supporting documents, the offices (drivers license offices in Alabama) which issue these IDs are not open all the time. Under "Idiosyncratic Hours" the Brennan report notes that :
Imagine you live in the Rockford area, you realize you need the new ID to vote, you are able to lay hands on your birth certificate and your marriage license (if you're a married woman) AND you find someone willing to drive you to the office. But you get there on Wednesday.
Closed.
Or say you know the office is only open on Thursday. But you get there on the second Thursday.
Closed.
Or on the first or fourth or even the elusive fifth Thursday of the month.
Closed.
Imagine the frustration and imagine how many people who experience that will never make it around to getting back to that office with all the necessary supporting documents on the correct day -- and during the often limited hours -- to try again. Burdensome? Yes it is. And it will happen all over Alabama's Black Belt.
As the report notes, it doesn't have to be this way.
We could spend time doing those things, but we don't, because one political party has realized that the fewer people who can vote, the better their chances of winning elections. This reminds me so much of the situation that gave us the 1901 Constitution in Alabama, where the wealthy planters realized it was getting harder and harder to steal elections so they had to shut those voters likely to oppose them out of elections altogether.
click> Why Republicans Need Voter Suppression - In Their Own Words
by: mooncat
Mon Jul 09, 2012 at 17:10:31 PM CDT
A jaw-dropping truth attack from a wealthy donor at a fundraiser for Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Hamptons. She inadvertently explains why it's so horrible for Republicans when ordinary voters turn out and vote:
Poor people ... they just don't get why they should vote for the party of more tax breaks for the ultra-rich. That's exactly why Republicans need a strong voter-suppression campaign to have any chance this fall. If a lot of ordinary people vote, the GOP is toast.
But a strong voter suppression campaign is exactly what they've got.
In the past two years at least 10 states have passed laws requiring prospective voters to show a government issued photo id before being allowed to vote. The people most likely to be disenfranchised by these voter id laws are exactly the people that Romney donor is talking about: The poor, minorities, the elderly, those with little education. And it's not to combat election fraud, which is the GOP cover story.
A Pennsylvania Republican legislator listed the voter id law as one of his party's accomplishments ... and said it would give the state to Mitt Romney this fall.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has embarked on a purge of voter lists (they did the same thing in 2000) with 180,000 voters to be deemed ineligible. Those voters, mostly from groups which lean toward Democrats, are to be presumed ineligible unless they swear to be citizensand provide documentation of citizenship ... with only a 30 day response window.
Mississippi Republicans may have come up with the slickest voter suppression scheme. They passed a voter-id bill that essentially locks out voters who don't already have a photo-id:
How about Alabama? Yep. Republican supermajorities in our Legislature rammed a photo id law through here as well, even though we already had a very good law which required voters to show identification at the polls. In fact, that old list of acceptable id is still what shows up on the Secretary of State's website because changes to election law in Alabama have to be pre-cleared by the DOJ. Can you hear the GOPers shouting "states' rights" here?
The new voter id requirement here is expected to take effect in 2014, just in time for the gubernatorial and legislative elections. Every Alabama voter will have to show -- not just identification -- but photo identification. And only certain types of photo id will be accepted. Chances are good that a lot of "common people," the "college kid[s], the baby sitters, the nails ladies" that rich Romney donor lamented, will be turned away for lack of the special photo id.
click> Voter Suppression 101 - Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.
click> YOUR VIEW: Arm yourself with facts to fight GOP's voter suppression ...
click>How Voter Suppression Endangers our Democratic Process