A golden opportunity to revamp the Voting Rights Act

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The Voting Rights Act was passed to address the many formal and informal mechanisms used by officials and the white electorate, particularly in the South, to prevent black citizens from voting: violence, intimidation, fraud, gerrymandering, poll taxes, literacy tests, whites-only party primaries, discriminatory enforcement of registration laws, property requirements and more.

Section 5, intended as a temporary fix, required that any changes in voting procedures get advance clearance from either the Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It targeted the worst state and regional offenders in 1965: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, parts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Congress later added other jurisdictions, including Arizona, Texas and a few counties in Florida, to the list covered by Section 5.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act was a game-changer. The immense registration gap between black and white voters (20% versus 70% in Alabama in 1965) was noticeably reduced within five years. Today, the jurisdictions targeted by Section 5 are much improved, and most voting rights challenges arise in jurisdictions that aren't covered. For example, in the last two presidential elections, there were voting problems in Ohio and parts of Florida not covered by the act.

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The fact that the self-described "strict constructionists" on the court would be the ones striking down this landmark statute reveals the poverty of the conservative argument against judicial activism. We are all judicial activists now and have always been so.

(more at the link)

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