Voting Rights ActThis category will include postings on the VRA extension and various court decisions interpreting the Voting Rights Act. What does the Supreme Court Voting Rights Act decision mean we should do now? Of all the calls on Congress to “cure” Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act before the Supreme Court kills the law altogether in the next case, none is stranger than the suggestion that Congress should “update” the “coverage formula.” A New Page for Voting: It's Time to Ditch Paper-Based Registration For two years, we were on opposite sides of a historic election, serving as general counsels to the Obama and McCain presidential campaigns. Our experiences led us to an inescapable conclusion: Bringing our voter registration system into the 21st century must be the priority for improving the election process. Standing, Ripeness and the NAMUDNO case Contrary to statements made to the Supreme Court, the MUD’s constitutional challenge is as-applied and not facial. While the MUD originally had mounted both a broad facial challenge and an as applied challenge to Section 5’s preclearance requirements, the MUD’s amended complaint expressly focused that claim into an as applied challenge. Feds Still Must Safeguard the Vote The other day, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the most important voting rights case to come along since Bush v. Gore. The Court's decision, expected this summer, will have a lasting impact on our democracy. Facts: 1 Spakovsky Speculations: 0 When commentators don’t have any facts to back up what they’re saying, they often speculate what they believe the facts to be. Speculation can sometimes be close to the truth, but is often flat out wrong—as is the case with Hans von Spakovsky’s latest post about Voting Rights Act Section 5 bailouts. All Voters Welcome: The Voting Rights Act must still hold open the doors to the polling place Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Critics of the act dismiss it as some sort of blue law, still on the books simply because no one has bothered to repeal it. If only that were true. Baseball, Apple Pie, DOJ and False Testimony It is shocking that the Justice Department would elevate the prosecution of a major league baseball player for lying to congressional investigators about steroid use above the prosecution of a former Justice Department official who was found to have given false testimony to Congress about politicized and illegal hiring practices within the agency. Texas Congressional Clout DeLayed Tom DeLay’s scorched earth Texas gerrymander has left a sad legacy in the Lone Star State. The power grab also remains Exhibit A for why we need redistricting reform before the next round of gerrymanders commences after the 2010 census. And the 2008 Winner of the Ken Blackwell Most Partisan Elections Administrator Is….. In 2008, Ohio’s Ken Blackwell has departed, but the Secretary of State from neighboring Indiana, Todd Rokita, appears headed toward a win in the 2008 Ken Blackwell most partisan elections administrator award. Campaign Justice? Time is running out on AG Mukasey and other officials to make clear that the partisan abuses at DOJ that marked their 2004 and 2006 activities around Election Day are over. Their failure to issue any public statement that they will aggressively investigate and prosecute voter intimidation and vote suppression schemes that surface around the upcoming election is deeply disappointing. |
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