2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumSupreme Court Appears Ready to Nuke the Voting Rights Act
From Mother Jones:
"A key pillar of American civil rights law is now in danger of being nullified by the Supreme Court.
Shelby County, Alabama, is seeking to have Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the law that first guaranteed the right of blacks in the South to vote, declared unconstitutional. Section 5 forces areas of the country with a history of discriminationmostly, but not entirely in the Southto ask the Department of Justice for its approval before making any changes to election rules. The DOJ is then supposed to ensure any changes protect Americans' voting rights.
...... The Supreme Court announced Friday that it would take up the case.
snip
The fact that the court is taking up a Section 5 case again so soon suggests strongly that the intent is to strike down part or all of the Voting Rights Act.
Although Section 5 survived in 2009, conservative justices appeared to believe that the law was discriminatoryagainst Southern white people. "Is it your position that today Southerners are more likely to discriminate than Northerners?" Chief Justice John Roberts demanded of the attorney defending the Voting Rights Act at the time. Despite the 8-1 vote, the 2009 decision was widely seen as leaving Section 5 hanging by a thread. The justices hinted very strongly that Congress, which had just reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in its entirety in 2006, should change the law soon or risk it being declared unconstitutional next time around.
Now it looks like the conservatives on the court will get their chance. A cursory review of recent Republican shenanigans with voting rules should put the notion that the VRA is obsolete entirely to bed. With voting growing more racially polarized, the temptations to alter voting rules to disenfranchise particular constituencies is obvious. Indeed, the Department of Justice successfully challenged Texas' redistricting map because it diluted the voting power of Latinos. If the court strikes Section 5 down, one of the most effective and important powers the federal government has for ensuring that the right to vote is not abridged on the basis of race will be destroyed. "
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/supreme-court-ready-nuke-voting-rights-act
thelordofhell
(4,569 posts)I'm lookin' at you Ohio
NCLefty
(3,678 posts)GitRDun
(1,846 posts)That way in 2014, The Democrats can take back the House and win more Senate seats!
I am just amazed at the stupidity. They'll get reduced 1% of every minority vote (no information voters) and lose another 10 points with white people.
The pro Romney electoral map looks shockingly similar to a map of the slave states...gee! I wonder what that means!?!
Marsala
(2,090 posts)JoeyT
(6,785 posts)"Yes, that's exactly what my position is. Are you fucking stupid? Have you never been to the South?"
wicket
(14,901 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)They are chomping at the bit to reverse every precedent they can in terms of civil rights. The shithead chief justice and his conservative jerkoffs don't comprehend what stare decisis is.
FVZA_Colonel
(4,096 posts)This could let the GOP run rampant over the people that rejected their ideology on Tuesday, and it feels like the MSM is just completely ignoring it.
Diclotican
(5,095 posts)amborin
The republicans is really starting to be desperate now - they lost the election they was sure to win - they even believed their own propaganda in the end - and was crushed in more way than one, when the reality of it all come in - "that black man" got another term in the White House, and they are furious as few about it..
And now they will try to turn back the time to when blacks, and people of colour had not right to vote at all. Or was advised not to if they wanted to wote...
it is clear for all now, where the republicans is going - they want to turn the clock back ot an age where people of color, people who is not white is not allowed to vote - to be put in their place once and for all... They had problems having a Black man in the white house 4 year ago - they can not swallow the fact, that the same man got elected again - to the white house...
And now they are playing a dangrous game, who might backfire on them in the end... They might even loose another election - that be in 2014 - and be releated to near in-relevancy by their own actions..
I just don't get it - why can not the republicans just say, okay we lost the election, and have to use the next 4 year to find out why we messed it up so badly.. Instead they are blaming the moon and the stars as the reason President Obama got elected, not just for one term, but for two terms in the oval office... They are some of the worst loosers I have ever followed in the US elections - they belived their own lies - and now they have to come to the facts - the American pepole don't want the extremist to take over the office...
Some even dream about a new civil war, where the south is breaking their bounds to the rest of the US, and build up their own "real america"... A US who never was, and who was just a image in their own making for as long as the country have existed.
It is really pitty to se the GOP of today - Abraham Lincon would have shaked on his wice head and wondered what become of the republican country the last 170 year.. It is not the party of Eisenhower or some of the other, respected republicans who made it their duty to do the best for the Republic, rather than for some reactionary groups who wanted to turn the clock back..
Diclotican