“We’re going to arrest anyone who commits a crime in front of this security camera. Now unplug the camera.”
That’s the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was unanimously re-authorized in 2006 by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed by George W Bush, but which today had section 4 struck down by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote.
Section 5 is what everyone was concerned with. Section 5 is the “preclearance” section, which basically says that jurisdictions that have a history of voting discrimination have to have any changes to voting law cleared by the Justice Department. There have been over 30 such cases since the last re-authorization.
But section 4 lays out the formula for what constitutes a history of voting discrimination. Section 4 determines who is subject to the preclearance requirements in section 5. And the Supreme Court tossed out section 4, on the ground that its formula and requirements as crafted in 1965 are outdated and that the country has changed; thus the Congress should rework section 4.
Two thoughts:
1) I’m sure Paula Deen and George Zimmerman will be relieved to hear there is no longer racism in the South. Trayvon Martin may have a dissenting opinion, except he doesn’t because he’s dead. So it goes.
2) In a Congress that won’t pass routine debt ceiling bills to authorize the money they’ve already spent, in a Congress that can’t pass an operating budget for years at a time, is there any chance whatsoever that the GOP will ever – ever – vote out a replacement for section 4 that even bothers to put its dentures in? In a world where the Republican party is indisputably of the South, by the South and for the South, the Court has asked the South to take charge of patrolling its own racism.
So does this mean an immediate return to Jim Crow? Not as such. But stand by for things like an end to early voting, tighter restrictions on absentee balloting, ever-tighter mandatory ID requirements, and shorter polling hours on the big day – anything that tightens participation and makes it tougher to vote. I don’t think the state of Alabama would have the balls to redistrict itself to eliminate the majority-minority districts and guarantee 7 GOP representatives from the state in the 2014 elections, but right now, there’s nothing to prevent it; they could do it and the only recourse would be a lawsuit after the fact.
SO basically the two memes floating around Twitter are both right:
1) “Privilege” is never having to worry about your rights being up for a vote.
2) Two justices appointed by Junior Bush just shitcanned the Voting Rights Act, but hey, Ralph Nader said there was no difference between Gore and Bush anyway.
Assholes.