Voting Rights Protection Act in Jeopardy

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Pictured from left: Martin Luther King III and Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of civil rights organization, National Action Network, talk to reports outside the U.S. Supreme Court Feb. 27 in Washington D.C. as oral arguments were heard on the Shelby County v. Holder case that threatens to undermine the Voting Rights of 1965. AP Photo
Pictured from left: Martin Luther King III and Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of civil rights organization, National Action Network, talk to reports outside the U.S. Supreme Court Feb. 27 in Washington D.C. as oral arguments were heard on the Shelby County v. Holder case that threatens to undermine the Voting Rights of 1965. AP Photo

Civil Rights organizations and people around the country took notice last week as the U.S. Supreme Court heard legal arguments that threaten to undo Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, which requires many states, cities, and counties, primarily in the South, to obtain preclearance from the Department of Justice before changing election laws in ways that could affect the voting rights of African Americans and other minorities.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S.

The Act prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." Specifically, Congress intended the Act to outlaw the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests in order to register to vote, a principal means by which Southern states had prevented African Americans from exercising the franchise.

The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had earlier signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The Act has been renewed and amended by Congress four times, the most recent being a 25-year extension signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2006.

In a legal proceeding that threatens to erase fifty years of voting protections, The NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is intervening in the Shelby County Ala. v. Holder case, on behalf of African-American residents of Shelby County whose voting rights are directly impacted by the county's challenge.

"The Shelby County case is a major marker in our nation's march towards the kind of just society Dr. King had envisioned," said Gary Bledsoe, President of the NAACP Texas State Conference. "At this point we will either, turn back the clock and reignite the fires of the past, or we will continue to move in a direction that recognizes every citizen's basic and fundamental rights, such as the right to vote."

Right now Department of Justice preclearance is required from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia and also certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan and New Hampshire.

Among those states, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas are siding with Shelby County, while California, Mississippi, New York and North Carolina argue that the law should be upheld, according to news reports.

Many, including Civil Rights Activist Rev. Al, Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), Rev. Charles Williams II and Sr., members of Detroit chapter of NAN, The NAACP, S.E.I.U., Dr. Martin Luther King III, and many other groups were in Washington, D.C., Feb 27, to support and challenge the hearing of the oral arguments in the case.

"The NAACP has always fought for voting rights and will never stop advocating for unfettered access to the ballot box for all Americans," stated Roslyn M. Brock, Chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors. "We are driven by the legacy of those who sacrificed time, resources, and in many cases, their lives for this fundamental right. We must ensure that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is preserved."

Shelby County v. Holder, came into play following the Justice Department's veto in 2008, of Shelby County's move to redraw one of its electoral maps effectively reducing the number of black voters in that district from 70.9 percent to 29.5 percent.

That case caught the attention of conservative advocate Edward Blum--who persuaded Shelby County to file a suit on the basis that Section 5 has outlived its validity and unfairly targets certain states.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP said, "This case comes on the heels of an election year in which our nation witnessed the greatest assault on voting rights since the Jim Crow era." "Section 5 is the heart of the VRA. Shelby County v. Holder threatens to erode the essential protections that Section 5 provides for all Americans. "

The Supreme Court will decide whether Section 5 is still a necessary deterrent against voter discrimination, and according to published reports, the liberal and conservative justices engaged in a sometimes tense back-and-forth, over whether there is an ongoing need in 2013 for the part of the Voting Rights Act that requires states with a history of discrimination, mainly in the Deep South, to obtain approval before making changes in the way elections are held.

A decision is expected to be made by the Supreme Court by late June.

Justice Antonin Scalia called the law a "perpetuation of racial entitlement."

Rev. Sharpton, perhaps the most vocal proponent of the Voting Rights Act, tweeted, a response to Justice Scalia's "racial entitlement" comment saying, Scalia's remark generated a lot of outrage, but it's not the first time the Supreme Court Justice said something outrageous. Sharpton also asked the public a question on his Politics Nation website: If you could replace just one member of the Supreme Court, who would it be?

Larissa M. Tyler, Managing Editor, Chicago Citizen Newspaper contributed to this report.

By Deborah Bayliss

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