The Independent View: The Voting Rights Act Under Attack

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) became law in 1965 with the its signing by President Lyndon Johnson. It was passed in the wake of the systematic suppression of the black vote across the South, whether by violence or complex voting systems, inconvenient polling locations, tests of literacy, or moral character.

Now a lawyer, Larry Kobrovsky from Charleston, South Carolina, Shelby County in Alabama, and a group of citizens from Kinston, North Carolina are claiming that a key section of the VRA is unconstitutional and imposes an unfair burden on jurisdictions subject to it.

The section in question, section five, requires jurisdictions that used a test or device to bar people from voting, and had a turnout below 50% in the presidential election of 1964, to obtain federal approval for any changes to their election practices, such as redistricting, changing voting systems, etc. Part or all of 16 states are covered by the "preclearence" requirements of section five, including nine southern states. Those covered must show that any changes do not deny people the right to vote because of their race or native language. Opponents argue that section five is unconstitutional because it violates the tenth amendment, which reserves to the states powers not granted to the federal government by the constitution, including power over elections and local government.

The Supreme Court has disagreed: the court found VRA constitutional under the fifteenth amendment, which promises that citizens' right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude, and gives Congress the powers to enforce this article by legislation. Congress has reauthorized section five, five times, the last time in 2006, since preslearence is not permanent. It is currently authorized until 2031. But the battle is not over. This is a redistricting year and the first time we have a Democratic-appointed Attorney General with a plurality of statehouses and a majority of governor seats in Republican hands. Fights lie ahead. The Supreme Court has hinted it may be ready to reconsider VRA. Chief Justice. John Roberts wrote "more than 40 years ago, this court concluded that exceptional conditions prevailing in certain parts of the country justified extraordinary legislation otherwise unfamiliar to our federal system. In part due to the success of this legislation, we are now a very different nation."

Yes we are. But I think not in the same way Judge Roberts was indicating. Since the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the changing of our voting systems, party's' trying to close the primary to a third of the voting public, I think section five should now cover ALL the states to protect us from forces that are trying to suppress our voices.