Supreme Court To Hear Challenge To Historic Voting Rights Act

The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to examine whether a central component of landmark civil rights legislation enacted to protect minority voters is still needed in a nation that has elected an African American president.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Birdman]

Hmmm now lets see, under the current law if you change any voting processes the feds have to approve the change to make sure no one is discriminated against.. The argument goes it isn't needed because we elected a black man see we are all better now. My only question would be if things are ok why get rid of the requirement? The only answer that comes to mind is some body wants to change the voting rules so we never again elect a black man to the Whitehouse. Otherwise there is no need to change anything.

[barackobama4prez]

blacks still need all of the protections they had before...wtf? obama ain't really the messiah...shhiiiiid!

[clearthinker2008]

Where are all the white gays....aren't they going to.....ahhhh whatever.

[Phenlandia]

They do realize that The Daily Show's "Racism is Over" story was satire?

[TJCole]

The Federalist Society which is the majority of "our" really their, Supreme Court exists to cut off access to the Constitution by the individual...

You don't have to get rid of the Constitution just make it impossible for individuals to file and plea Federal Constitutional cases which they have been doing for years..and will continue until it really is just a piece of paper under glass to look at and truly dead as is Scalia's life's mission...!

[rasit]

I find it interesting that just because we have elected an African American President, we don't need the protection of the Voting Rights Act...But, sadly, these people fail to understand that there is still plenty of DISCRIMINATION out there....

[StillIRise]

I think they do understand, which is why they're trying to take away this protection.

[Paparaze]

These judges are idle.

[DaBluAce]

let the riots begin! They don't want to see folks boycotting in this economic season we are in..........

[kinnycut]

Listen close and you will hear Dr. King spinning in his grave.

[onalimb]

Obviously there is still discrimination.
The act should remain.

[carnelld]

In most southern states, minority representives, whether on city councils, school boards, county commissions, state legislatures, etc are only possible through districted elections. The only reason these districts are still in place is because of the Voting Rights Act pre-clearance provisions. Before
election laws, districts population changes, polling places, etc can be changed , they must be approved by the Justice department to insure the changes are not made based on racial discrimination and voter disenfranchisement.

I recently witnessed an attempt to redraw the voting district lines in a municipal election to eliminate
the one(1) minority district(council person ) in that city.

The change was not made because of the techniques and reasoning used by the city. The
Justice Department would not approve the changes.

[rabiddog6708]

A Black man is elected POTUS and suddenly there is a challenge to the Voting Rights Act that helped make this possible. Seems like Repubs want to take steps to make certain that nothing like this happen again.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

Gee, where are all my fellow AA democrats from the Prop 8 threads? I would have thought they'd have a lot to say here, after completely ignoring gay concerns and saying hey, AA's fought for civil rights, so go get yours, you ain't automatically entitled!!!!

Interesting. Why don't we put the whole Voting Rights Act up to a popular vote, just like they did with Prop 8 type laws in California and Florida and other places, and see if we want to renew it or not. Let AA's make their case, and educate, and convince, and cojole, and do "outreach" and all the things they want us to do.

Poplular votes seem to be the way to go, let's put everyone's rights up to a popular vote. Including those handicapped parking spaces, there's way too many of them and I'm tired of walking so far to the store.

[amistad]

Black people are not the only ones who voted against Prop 8 and the myth that the Black people are solely responsible for Prop 8 has been exposed.
Seems like you are another r@cist angry tr0ll on the boards here to start some sh*t.
Next.

[azcats11]

keep blaming blacks for your laziness in informing people on your issues and stances. more STR8 whites voted against prop 8 than any other group. the MORE you attack blacks and other minorities, the less support you will get.

[WorldGoneWild]

I have to agree with you. The issue was lost on the organizers not informing the black communities about the proposition. Polarizing the gay and black communities will just prolong the fight for equality that will not be lost on those in the religious right-wing faction to exploit. Let's get it together!

[levibatgirl]

It appears that the argument is now that we have an African American PE, the voting rights act is no longer needed.

Baloney!

The fact that they now want to get rid of this law speaks volumes.
There is evidence of minority voter suppression (caging votes) by the GOP.
I don't doubt that this r a c i s t party will be thinking up new tricks with every election.

http://www.pbs.org/now/election-2008/question2.html

[IrishDem06]

This act still needs to be in place for place like Jena and Others. just because you have African American president does not mean that racism gone. I have people in my town in Rockingham, NC that are still sounding like KKK members because a black person won! the funny thing is me and about half of the white voter were for him here and the other minority voters put over to win!

P.S . I hope this act is still in place when the Majority Voters(White) become the Minority!! Just a thought!