RAPID RESPONSE—Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald joins B-PEP and community activists in condemning the Supreme Court ruling that part of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. (Photos by J. L. Martello)
Following the Supreme Court’s June 25 Ruling that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional, local African-Americans echoed national leaders from the NAACP, the Urban League, and others organizations to condemn the narrow 5-4 ruling, saying it destroyed more than 40 years of anti-voter discrimination work.
“This is a slap in the face to many, many people,” said NAACP Pittsburgh Unit President Connie Parker. “Now we have to fight as if we didn’t have the right to vote before.”
The court held that using Section 4’s nearly 50-year-old data on voter discrimination and abuses could not be used to penalize the covered jurisdictions today.
Section 4 contained the formula by which Section 5—requiring, originally, southern states and some other counties to obtain pre-clearance from the federal government before making any changes to voting laws—determined coverage.
The formula looked at whether states imposed unfair devices such a literacy tests in the most recent federal election (Nov. 1964), whether less than 50 percent of the voting age population was registered to vote as of that date, or if less than 50 percent of eligible voters voted in that election.
In 1975, the formula was expanded to nine states and parts of seven others, to include jurisdictions as varied as Alaska and New Hampshire that printed voting materials in English only yet had language minorities comprising 5 percent of the voting age population.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in the minority dissent said the ruling was akin to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”
Venerable Pittsburgh civil rights attorney Wendell Freeland called the ruling “an amazing display of arrogance by the court in directing the congress to amend the law.
LEGALLY BOUND—Urban League member and Duquesne University Law Professor Tracey McCants Lewis says the Urban League is committed to restoring the Voting Rights Act.
ON TO WASHINGTON—Celeste Taylor exhorts those attending BPEP’s Voting Rights Act press conference to join her on the bus for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
“It is devastating because this was a keystone of the Civil Rights Movement,” said Freeland. “What has been overlooked and forgotten by commentators is that there is a provision that allows covered districts to opt out. If a district has no violations for 10 years, they can ask the U.S. Justice Department to opt out. Those are not 50-year-old numbers. I know of no district that has not been allowed to do so.”
Freeland said the ruling was calculating in that, even under ideal circumstances, it would take some time for congress to create a new formula.
First a case has to be made for new districts and states to be included and a record (of violations) established,” he said. “But the court knows full well that with the bunch in office today that it will be almost impossible for Section 4 to be effectively amended.”
Nonetheless, local activist from the Black Political Empowerment Project, the Western PA Black Political Assembly, the Thomas Merton Center and others announced during a July 1 press conference with Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald that they would continue to fight voter suppression efforts.
Celeste Taylor said she has already begun planning for a new march on Washington.
On Saturday, Aug. 24 participants will board buses to Washington DC to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and to renew our collective commitment to voting rights, to human rights, to equality of education, to quality housing for everyone, to access to jobs with a living wage and equality in the application of justice! Those who wish to join us should contact B-PEP at b-pepinfo@b-pep.net or call Celeste Taylor at 412-661-1246 or B-PEP at 412-758-7898.
But not all in congress are waiting for that. On June 28, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., sent a letter to Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, calling for immediate action.
“We should not allow the successes of the VRA to be used to justify stripping the very provisions that allow for effective protection of the rights it guarantees,” he wrote. “It is now the responsibility of Congress to pass legislation that will enable enforcement through Section 5 and continue to secure the right to vote to all of our citizens, regardless of race, national origin or language.”
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