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Congressional Democrats to introduce new Voting Rights Act fix

While restoring the voting rights act is important, we are going to need to clean out some of the conservative justices first. If you look at the absolutely nutty reasoning they used to strike down those sections before (it's unconstitutional because it's effective) it's hard to see how any restoration of those sections is possible until they are replaced.
 
They effectively ruled that its time has passed, and why not?

Show us why not. Show us the need for federal control.
 
Jaskalas said:
They effectively ruled that its time has passed, and why not?

Show us why not. Show us the need for federal control.
Click to expand...

It's already been shown.

Here's a link to some quick examples. (yes, Mother Jones, but just read the verbatim quotes from the dissent) http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/06/best-lines-ginsburg-dissent-voting-rights-act-decision

Not only is there the fundamental logical problem that because the VRA is effective we don't need the VRA (making it logically impossible to uphold the statute either way), here's some examples why federal control would be needed:

"In 1995, Mississippi sought to reenact a dual voter registration system, 'which was initially enacted in 1892 to disenfranchise Black voters,' and for that reason was struck down by a federal court in 1987."

"Following the 2000 Census, the City of Albany, Georgia, proposed a redistricting plan that DOJ found to be 'designed with the purpose to limit and retrogress the increased black voting strength…in the city as a whole.'"

"In 2001, the mayor and all-white five-member Board of Aldermen of Kilmichael, Mississippi, abruptly canceled the town's election after 'an unprecedented number' of AfricanAmerican candidates announced they were running for office. DOJ required an election, and the town elected its first black mayor and three black aldermen."

"In 2006, the court found that Texas' attempt to redraw a congressional district to reduce the strength of Latino voters bore 'the mark of intentional discrimination that could give rise to an equal protection violation,' and ordered the district redrawn in compliance with the VRA…In response, Texas sought to undermine this Court's order by curtailing early voting in the district, but was blocked by an action to enforce the §5 pre-clearance requirement."

"In 2003, after African-Americans won a majority of the seats on the school board for the first time in history, Charleston County, South Carolina, proposed an at-large voting mechanism for the board. The proposal, made without consulting any of the African-American members of the school board, was found to be an 'exact replica' of an earlier voting scheme that, a federal court had determined, violated the VRA…DOJ invoked §5 to block the proposal."

"In 1993, the City of Millen, Georgia, proposed to delay the election in a majority-black district by two years, leaving that district without representation on the city council while the neighboring majority white district would have three representatives…DOJ blocked the proposal. The county then sought to move a polling place from a predominantly black neighborhood in the city to an inaccessible location in a predominantly white neighborhood outside city limits."

"In 2004, Waller County, Texas, threatened to prosecute two black students after they announced their intention to run for office. The county then attempted to reduce the availability of early voting in that election at polling places near a historically black university."

"In 1990, Dallas County, Alabama, whose county seat is the City of Selma, sought to purge its voter rolls of many black voters. DOJ rejected the purge as discriminatory, noting that it would have disqualified many citizens from voting 'simply because they failed to pick up or return a voter update form, when there was no valid requirement that they do so.'"
Click to expand...

There are dozens and dozens of additional examples in the Congressional record as to all the crazy crap people subject to the preclearance sections of the VRA tried to do. Let me know how many more you need?
 
You think feds should control state districts?

Pass a bill to apply that to the ENTIRE nation, equally. That's the part your missing.
 
Jaskalas said:
You think feds should control state districts?

Pass a bill to apply that to the ENTIRE nation, equally. That's the part your missing.
Click to expand...

That would be asserting federal control over areas that have not shown a need for federal control. An important constitutional principle is to tailor these bills to be as narrow as possible. In this case it's places with long histories of racist election policy along with deliberate attempts to subvert voting rights for minorities.
 
Change the voting age to 30 and everyone ineligible if they did not pay any federal income taxes. He who makes the money to run the country gets to vote on how to spend it.
 
piasabird said:
Change the voting age to 30 and everyone ineligible if they did not pay any federal income taxes. He who makes the money to run the country gets to vote on how to spend it.
Click to expand...

Are you having a competition for how many times you can violate the Constitution with one idea? So far you've got the 24th and 26th amendments.

It's always interesting when people who claim to love the Constitution so much just can't wait to violate it when it gets them what they want.
 
piasabird said:
Change the voting age to 30 and everyone ineligible if they did not pay any federal income taxes. He who makes the money to run the country gets to vote on how to spend it.
Click to expand...

better yet, if they don't pay taxes, their votes should only count as 3/5 of one...LOL
 
piasabird said:
Change the voting age to 30 and everyone ineligible if they did not pay any federal income taxes. He who makes the money to run the country gets to vote on how to spend it.
Click to expand...

So old people who worked their entire lives and possible served in a war would not be able to vote if they don't have a certain threshold of retirement earnings?
 
HomerJS said:
How about a $150 tax credit for everyone who votes.
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How about voting over more than one day? How about staffing better and having more voting locations? How about you are automatically registered to vote when you turn 18? How about presidential elections are a federal holiday people whom do have to work are not scheduled more than 6 continuous hours (unless its absolutely necessary like a Doctor or similar).
 
Fanatical Meat said:
So old people who worked their entire lives and possible served in a war would not be able to vote if they don't have a certain threshold of retirement earnings?
Click to expand...
I would never willingly want take a vote away from a legal resident, but if I were forced to take the vote away from a group of people, it would be the elderly. The elderly can vote themselves into massive government payouts and never live long enough to have to face the consequences. The young; however, have to deal with what they vote for 50, 60, 70+ years.
 
piasabird said:
Change the voting age to 30 and everyone ineligible if they did not pay any federal income taxes. He who makes the money to run the country gets to vote on how to spend it.
Click to expand...

That might be plausible if not for the problem of having to go die for your country and not be able to vote in it. Also what about old and disabled people?
 
Jaskalas said:
Opposed unless a specific need is discerned.
Click to expand...

Is that what you said about "voter fraud"?

Jaskalas said:
They effectively ruled that its time has passed, and why not?

Show us why not. Show us the need for federal control.
Click to expand...

You think feds should control state districts?

Pass a bill to apply that to the ENTIRE nation, equally. That's the part your missing.
Click to expand...

Havin' it both ways.

Need has been shown, but not for the entire nation.

I doubt that preclearance is a difficult hurdle for truly honest efforts. Which isn't what we're talking about, anyway, but rather the coy "it's not intended to be racist" routine.
 
Jaskalas said:
You think feds should control state districts?

Pass a bill to apply that to the ENTIRE nation, equally. That's the part your missing.
Click to expand...

Every state hasn't historically tried to disenfranchise black voters. It seems like a waste of taxpayer money to monitor the states that weren't breaking the law.

If the southern states don't like being babysat like little (racist) children, maybe they should stop acting like them.
 
Jaskalas said:
They effectively ruled that its time has passed, and why not?

Show us why not. Show us the need for federal control.
Click to expand...

The evidence that it has worked all this time, doing exactly as intended.

If you need more evidence of the idiocy at the base of Scalia's logic, look no further than his rational for striking this one down: "These laws are no longer needed, because such violations have not occurred in x decades!"

...the nincompoop fails to address the fact that violations do not occur because these regulations are in place. Not a year has gone by that the cornholers in Arkansas or the mudbathers in Alabama have not tried to skirt the voting Rights Act, but been squashed down due to the regulation.

So, the evidence you are seeking will occur every election cycle from here on out and until they are restored, because we will see the results of absence.
 
dainthomas said:
Every state hasn't historically tried to disenfranchise black voters. It seems like a waste of taxpayer money to monitor the states that weren't breaking the law.

If the southern states don't like being babysat like little (racist) children, maybe they should stop acting like them.
Click to expand...

exactly.

And I'm a southerner.
 
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