"The Court’s conservative majority didn’t rule that so-called “preclearance” standards are unconstitutional — just that the ones Congress had adopted, most recently in 2006, no longer fly. That means it’s up to Congress to replace them, and it’s up to Republicans in Congress to decide if they’re going to stand in the way." "That puts McConnell and Boehner in the same predicament they face in the fight over immigration reform: Would killing new Voting Rights Act standards ahead of the 2014 election be valuable enough in the near term (for both the party as a whole and their own leadership prospects) to outweigh the damage it would do to them in 2016 and the future with minority voters who will be watching this story very closely. At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves, if McConnell decides not to block the bill — or simply finds himself unable — Boehner will face pressure to give the issue a fair hearing on the floor as well, rather than let the Court’s ruling stand for the coming election. “In 2006, Democrats and Republicans came together to reauthorize the law, garnering overwhelming bipartisan support in a Republican-led Congress - passing the House by a vote 390-33 and the Senate by a vote of 98-0, then signed into law by President George W. Bush,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. “This year, we must follow in that same tradition, taking the court’s decision as our cue for further action to strengthen this legislation.”"
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 21:54:56 +0000
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