Escalating the politically charged debate over voting rights in America, the Justice Department went to court Thursday in an attempt to require the state of Texas to get approval from the federal government before making changes to the state's voting process.
Attorney General Eric Holder told delegates to the National Urban League's conference in Philadelphia that the move was in direct response to last month's Supreme Court decision that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That provision allowed the Justice Department to take action against jurisdictions that adopted discriminatory voting laws. It has applied to Texas and eight other states, as well as to parts of six others.
"This is the department's first action to protect voting rights (since last month's Supreme Court decision), but it won't be our last,'' Holder said. "We cannot allow the slow unraveling of the progress that so many, throughout history, have sacrificed so much to achieve.''
Referring to the Voting Rights Act as the "cornerstone of modern civil rights law,'' Holder also called on Congress "to restore, and even to strengthen, modern voting protections.''
After the Supreme Court's decision last month, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, called for the immediate implementation of a voter-identification law previously blocked by the Voting Rights Act.
Holder is seeking to use a remaining provision of the act that requires a showing of intentional discrimination against voters, known as a "bail-in'' provision.Read the rest of the Story HERE and view a related video below:
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2 comments:
Wow. Ignoring the law because he "knows better." It's so much worse than just a runamok president who outweighs the balances of the other two branches of government. Each appointed head within the executive branch also believes himself or herself to be a law unto themselves. Dept. Homeland Security, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Dept. of Justice... These people believe they are above the law. My country is gone. More and more I believe the only way to get her back is to hold a revert-olution, get back to the Constitution.
At the risk of being politically incorrect, NONE OF THIS would be happening if states exercised their constitutional right to secede from the union, but Lincoln permanently squashed that right along with a lot of others. That's why the LIBS love him so much.
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