Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder asked a Federal court in the state of Texas to subject the State of Texas to pre-clearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. While the US Supreme Court may have struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, they did not repeal the law as a whole. That means the remaining sections of the law are in full force and actions can and may be exercised by the Attorney General of the United States.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) told The Hill on Thursday that critics of the Justice Department’s actions related to the Texas redistricting and voting laws were misrepresenting the facts. “The [Justice] department’s actions are consistent with the Voting Rights Act,” he said, noting that Voting Rights Act still allows challenges to changes that would suppress minority voters.
“Increased litigation will be one of the major consequences of the court’s decision as courts will have to litigate more allegations of voter discrimination under Section 2 and whether jurisdictions should be ‘bailed-in’ to pre-clearance coverage,” he added.
Read the full article at ThinkProgress
- Rick Perry outraged by feds’ effort to protect minority voters (tv.msnbc.com)
- Holder seeks to restore key Voting Rights Act protections in Texas (dailykos.com)
- Holder Moves To Take Control Of Southern States’ Elections (patdollard.com)
- Sensenbrenner: DOJ is legally justified in going after Texas (thehill.com)
- Eric Holder Is Going After Texas On Voting Rights, One Month After The Supreme Court Gutted The Law (businessinsider.com)
- The DOJ Will Work Around the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act Decision (theatlanticwire.com)
- Obama administration declares new voter rights strategy (reuters.com)