Saturday, November 2nd, 2013
Stephan: Citizens United I believe will rank, along with the Dred Scott decision as one of the most egregiously obtuse and stupidest decisions ever made by the Supreme Court. Even the original judge who first ruled on it before it went to the Supreme Court has repudiated it. And it was followed by another truly awful decision by the conservative bloc on the Court, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act.
The 1858 Dred Scott decision played a role in the lead up to the Civil War. The two modern decisions have fundamentally changed American democracy -- for the worse. It should have been obvious how bad these decisions were, so obvious in fact that one can only wonder whether these conservative activist justices don't have a political agenda. Here is an excellent assessment of what the Voting Rights Act decision has led to. The flood of money that preceded it, with Citiziens is already well-known.
The racial implications of the Voting Rights Act decision have gotten a lot of coverage. Much less discussed is the suppression of women voters, with Texas leading the way in ignominy.
Click through to see the useful map that accompanies this report.
Last year, we wrote extensively about photo ID laws and the Supreme Court’s decision to strike a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Now, with gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, and the debt ceiling and healthcare debates already shaping the 2014 midterms, we’re revisiting voting policies to see which states have enacted tougher restrictions since the Supreme Court ruling in June.
Remind me – what is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act?
Under the Voting Rights Act, states and localities with a history of racial discrimination needed to get permission from the federal government to enact any changes to their voting laws, in a process called ‘preclearance.