June 25,
2013
By NOW
President Terry O’Neill
The
National Organization for Women is appalled by today’s Supreme Court ruling
that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. I have already
been asked by grassroots NOW leaders if this decision promotes a political
agenda that would revive the racial power relations in existence in the 1940s
and 1950s. This question is particularly troubling because the Supreme Court is
not supposed to advance or promote any political agenda. With this decision, it
is more than appropriate to ask whether, once again (as with Bush v. Gore and Citizens United v.
Federal Election Commission) the court is further undermining its legitimacy as a
neutral arbiter.
Racism and
discrimination still exist in this country and in our voting laws -- we’ve seen
dramatic efforts in many states to limit voting access. Politicians have tried
passing restrictive voter ID laws, cutting back early-voting hours, eliminating
same-day voter registration, and aggressive purging of voter rolls in recent
elections. These laws unquestionably target low-income and minority
communities.
In her
dissent, Justice Ginsburg called preclearance a "particularly
effective" aspect of the Voting Rights Act. Indeed, according to the
Brennan Center for Justice, between 1982 and 2006, more than 1,000
discriminatory schemes were blocked by the Department of Justice under Section
5. Without Section 4, the preclearance mandated by Section 5 becomes
ineffective. Essentially, without the formula in Section 4 there can be no
preclearance.
The
survival of the Voting Rights Act -- which ensures that jurisdictions with a
history of discriminatory voting laws cannot change their laws without
preclearance -- is now in the hands of Congress, making it all the more crucial
for those who believe in the right of every citizen to vote to demand that
Congress take action immediately and to replace, in 2014, those who block
action with champions of voting rights. NOW's activists and allies will
continue to fight to protect the voting rights of all citizens.
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