On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, in deciding the case Shelby County v. Holder, elected to basically kill the Voting Rights Act, and put the whole deal in the lap of Congress to fix.
What the majority of The Supreme Court did was say that the formula for determining the application of Federal approval for a state’s election process has not been changed since the law was passed in 1965.
The Supreme Court goes against the DC Circuit Court in observing that over time, more black political candidates have been elected, and in its holding basically stopped short of saying ‘and now we have a black president,’ but the message was there.
Now that we have what the U.S. Supreme Court calls voting parity racially, those voting in favor don’t see that the Voting Rights Act is constitutional. That’s a reach,but that’s where we are. The majority, all conservative, say that Congress must update the criteria for the Federal Government to intervene. And the Supes remind us that the VRA was originally designed to keep the voting process of just nine states in line.
The trouble is, the VRA has been seen to be in place to keep any act, large or small, in attacking voting rights, from coming to reality. Now, for the present, that’s gone.
But if you’re a GOPer with ideas, stop.
A number of African Americans are so pissed, the result will be a giant 2014 voting bloc that could wipe out Republican Party elections across the country.
stay tuned.