Pelosi mulling ‘John Lewis Voting Rights Act’ to overturn Supreme Court decision

[deminks]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/27/pelosi-mulling-john-lewis-voting-rights-act-to-overturn-supreme-court-decision/

Former Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Wednesday that Congressional Democrats are planning new legislation to render ineffective Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision on Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, the historic 1965 legislation that guaranteed equal access to the vote for all Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity. According to The Hill, Pelosi is already considering naming the prospective bill after civil rights icon and Georgia Rep. John Lewis (D).

“I would like to see something…called the John Lewis Voting Rights Act,” she continued, saying that Congress could follow Chief Justice Roberts’ recommendation and re-write Section 4?s criteria.

(snip)

Rep. John Lewis marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from Montgomery, Alabama to Selma, where he and other marchers were brutally beaten by Alabama State Troopers on the day known as Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. Lewis was beaten nearly to death that day, an experience he recounted before a Congressional hearing a week later.

“I was hit with a billy club, and I saw the State Trooper that hit me,” Lewis told Congress. “I was hit twice, once when I was lying down and was attempting to get up.”

“The Troopers kept saying, ‘Move back, you ni**ers, disperse!’” he said. “and calling people black bitches and sons of bitches and things like that.”

When the marchers knelt in prayer as a show of passive resistance, the State Troopers lobbed tear gas grenades at them.

(end snip)

1. Nancy needs to attach some kind of read acknowledgement when she sends the file to SCOTUS for everyone of those people, so Congress can be sure at least that they read their damned legislation. John Roberts sort of skipped that part.

2. We need to add places like Wisconsin and Ohio to the list of states that need pre-certification, and every one of the states now rushing to pass their voter-id bills this week, and every one of them that has already passed those ALEC canned voter id bills.

3. We need to add electronic voting in general to that list that needs pre-certification. If it can't be pre-certified, throw it out.

4. We will need UN observers for the next voting extravaganza in this country. Too much is going on right now. That should be part of the bill that is sent to SCOTUS primarily as a slap in their face for what they have done, and not done.

/rant off.

[gcomeau]

1. What we need to do...

"2. We need to add places like Wisconsin and Ohio to the list of states that need pre-certification,..."

...is add EVERY state to that list so we don't have to be dealing with this crap when some random state not currently on the list shifts red and get a Republican state legislature and governor at some point in the future and goes wild because they're not on the list and can get away with murder.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. agree! all states.

[leftyohiolib]

2. mulling? there should already be bills in place ready to go

[AndyA]

3. Hopefully, Pelosi will keep this on the table, and not remove it like she did impeachment for Bush.

Impeachment for Bush should have been the first course. Don't mull it over, Nancy: just do it. 2014 is coming quickly.

[PoliticAverse]

5. The decision basically instructed Congress to come up with a new formula.

That's all that is necessary to fix it. The new formula might even extend coverage
to more states thus expanding the protections of the VRA.

[William769]

6. Kick & recommended.

[pnwmom]

7. Is there a reason not to ask every state for pre-certification before they enact laws

that could make it more difficult to vote?

The reasonable states aren't trying to do it anyway, so I don't see how needing to get pre-certification would hurt them. What am I missing here?

[PoliticAverse]

10. The possibility that a future Republican attorney general could stop a state that

wanted to change election laws to make it easier for more people to vote
(extended voting days or hours, voting by mail etc.).

[pnwmom]

11. Maybe they should only require pre certification for measures that made it more difficult?

[sheshe2]

8. K&R!

[Doctor_J]

9. Dems are good at mulling things over

let's hope something actually comes of this