In June of 2014 the United States Supreme Court effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by a 5 to 4 decision. This was a law that even Justice Roberts said had worked since 1965. Only someone as out of touch as Justice Roberts could have used the rationale that if it is working let's get rid of it. He stated, "Our country has changed." He was wrong. As Mother Jones reported,
Within two hours of the Shelby decision, Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that the state's voter identification law—which had previously been blocked by a federal court—would be immediately implemented. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, another Republican, also immediately instated his state's voter ID law. About one month after the Shelby decision, Republicans in North Carolina pushed through a package of extreme voting restrictions, including ending same-day registration, shortening early voting by a week, requiring photo ID, and ending a program that encourages high schoolers to sign up to vote when they turn 18. In October, Virginia purged more than 38,000 names from the voter rolls. Mississippi's Republican secretary of state, Delbert Hosemann, told the Associated Press in November that the state was going to start implementing its voter ID law by the June 2014 elections. (This proposal was undergoing Justice Department review when the Shelby decision came down.) In January, Republican Gov. Rick Scott attempted again (unsuccessfully) to purge noncitizens from Florida's voting rolls, a move he had tried previously in 2012, before being blocked by Section 5. And thanks to the Supreme Court ruling, South Carolina was able to implement a stricter photo identification requirement.
So much for a changing country.
Justice Bader correctly wrote that it was like, "... throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet."
However, there is a movement to restore the protections of the VRA. Here's what the National Association of Social Workers had to say.
Already 500,000 Americans have signed their name to petitions calling on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act and protect the right to vote for all. If you believe that discrimination in voting is wrong, you can join with this growing movement by going to www.VRA4Today.org.
On September 17, a broad coalition of civil rights, labor, and progressive leaders launched the VRA for Today Coalition with a petition signed by more than 500,000 Americans who strongly support restoring the Voting Rights Act and protecting all voters from discrimination. NASW is a part of this coalition.
Advocates first went to Speaker Boehner’s office during normal business hours to deliver the names of the 500,000 petition signers who are urging the Speaker, and Congress, to fix the U.S. Supreme Court’s misguided and destructive decision to gut the Voting Rights Act, Shelby County v. Holder. But rather than even an aide receiving the civil rights leaders, they were met by a locked door.
Due to the decision in Shelby, voters will head to the polls in November with the weakest protections against voting discrimination in half a century; yet Congress has failed to act—despite having a bipartisan Voting Rights Amendment Act drafted and ready to be debated and moved forward.
We will not give up, despite Speaker Boehner and the House’s refusal to act. The half a million Americans and leading organizations involved in the VRA for Today Coalition stand together in an ongoing fight to restore the Voting Rights Act, with support that will only continue to grow.
One of the Republicans biggest lies in a sea of lies is that they are trying to protect the rights of voters by ending voter fraud. A claim that has been disproved again and again. It is clear they are trying to disenfranchise those voters who may support a more liberal agenda. The fact that Boehner refused to even meet with the civil rights leaders and accept the petitions of 500,000 American voters prove that he is tone deaf and completely disrespectful to those who simply want to exercise their rights under the constitution. Instead of allowing the Republicans to sue Obama, Democrats should sue Boehner for not upholding the rights of American Citizens.
This should be a cause that angers all Americans no matter what ideology they happen to espouse. Boehner's actions and those of the Republicans are an affront to those who believe in the Constitution and fair elections.
