The U.S. Justice Department will seek to reinstate federal oversight of the Texas redistricting case using provisions of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court left intact, the Washington Post reports. The action will be part of a national effort to prevent states from rolling back minority voting rights. The aggressive action by the White House is a major development in the voting rights fight, producing a potential parallel path as Congress considers whether to rewrite portions of the Voting Rights Act to account for the Supreme Court’s erasure of the “preclearance” requirement for a number of states with a history of discrimination, including Texas. The Post says Attorney General Eric Holder will seek to impose a 10-year “preclearance” requirement on Texas, meaning any changes to voting procedures would again have to gain approval by the Justice Department or federal courts: Holder announced that, in a first step, the department will support a lawsuit in Texas that was brought by a coalition of Democratic legislators and civil rights groups against the state’s redistricting plan. Holder said he is asking a federal judge to require Texas to submit all voting law changes to the Justice Department for approval for a ten-year period because of its history of discrimination. “It’s a pretty clear sign that a lawsuit against the Texas voter-ID law is also on the way,” said Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman. Miller said Justice may also sue North Carolina if that state passes a new voter ID law. The Obama administration had opposed the Texas voter-ID law signed in 2011 by Gov. Rick Perry (R.), saying it endangered minority voting rights. Texas was one of eight states that passed voter-ID laws. Supporters of the measures, which were signed by seven Republican governors and one independent, said that requiring voters to show specific photo IDs would prevent voter fraud. But critics of the laws said that they could hurt turnout among minority voters and others. Because of Texas’s history of discrimination, the voter-ID law had to be cleared by the Justice Department. The department blocked the law, saying it would endanger minority voting rights. Texas sued the Justice Department, leading to a week-long trial last summer. Last August, the U.S. District Court in Washington blocked the law from going into effect, ruling that the legislation would impose “strict, unforgiving burdens” on poor, minority voters. But just hours after the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Texas would move forward with its voter-ID law and would also carry out redistricting changes that had been mired in court battles. In North Carolina, the Republican legislature is set to pass one of the strictest voting laws in the country that voting rights advocates say will hurt minority voters because the law will make it harder to register and vote. Read more: washingtonpost/politics/justice-department-to-challenge-states-voting-rights-laws/2013/07/25/c26740b2-f49b-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN_p The New York Times has some Texas reactions: Lawyers for minority groups have already asked a court in Texas to return the state to federal oversight. The Justice Department’s action — filing a “statement of interest” in that case — will bring the weight of the federal government behind those efforts. In a statement, Gov. Rick Perry cast Mr. Holder’s remarks as an attempt by the Obama administration to weaken what he called the state’s voter-integrity laws and said the comments demonstrated the administration’s “utter contempt for our country’s system of checks and balances.” “This end run around the Supreme Court undermines the will of the people of Texas, and casts unfair aspersions on our state’s common-sense efforts to preserve the integrity of our elections process,” Mr. Perry said. State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat who is the chairman of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, said racial discrimination in Texas was not a thing of the past. “The fact that intervention in Texas is the Department of Justice’s first action to protect voting rights following the Shelby County decision speaks volumes about the seriousness of Texas’ actions,” Mr. Fischer said. “Texans should be proud that the resources of the federal government will be brought to bear to protect the voting rights of all.” nytimes/2013/07/26/us/holder-wants-texas-to-clear-voting-changes-with-the-us.html?hp&_r=0
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 13:00:12 +0000
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