A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced a bill would restore key parts of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional.
Under the proposal, four states—Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas—would again have to get approval from the Justice Department before making any changes in the way they hold elections.
The proposal would undo some of the damage of a Supreme Court ruling last June that eliminated a provision requiring federal clearance by the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia as well as certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota and some local jurisdictions in Michigan.
The bill should help modernize and improve the civil rights legislation by updating the formulas used to require certain states with a history of discrimination to get federal approval before changing election laws and practices.
The bill would now require clearances only from states where there have been at least five Voting Rights Act violations—with at least one committed by the state itself. Bill supporters said only Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas fall into that category. States could seek a “bailout” from the clearance requirement after 10 years.
It is a positive sign that the bill was written by a bipartisan group of lawmakers—Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who helped write it along with Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
The legislators said they introduced the bill to coincide with Monday’s holiday commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
The bill is expected to have a good chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where several Republicans have expressed support for it, said Leahy. Its path in the Republican-controlled House, where it does not have a Republican co-sponsor, is less certain.
The bill is far from perfect and should be even stronger, but it is a major step towards restoring some of the protections under the Voting Rights Act.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
