Legal Defense Fund to Defend Voting Rights Act Before Supreme Court

NEW YORK, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, the United States
Supreme Court will hear a constitutional challenge to a core provision of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District
Number One v. Holder. The Legal Defense Fund will present argument to the
Court in defense of the law in a case that is widely regarded as one of the
most important voting rights cases in recent time. At issue is the Section 5
preclearance provision which requires a select number of jurisdictions with a
history of racial discrimination in voting to submit new voting laws to the
Department of Justice or a federal court for preapproval -- a process known as
preclearance. The Appellant, a small Texas-based utility district, filed the
case seeking to end its responsibility for having its voting changes reviewed
but more significantly to have the preclearance provision of the Act declared
unconstitutional. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected
the suit last spring finding Congress well within its authority to renew this
key provision of the Voting Rights Act in light of significant evidence of
ongoing voting discrimination in the jurisdictions where the law applies.

"The Voting Rights Act has literally transformed our democracy and our
country. Section 5 cut right through the determined resistance to Black
political participation by requiring that certain states with entrenched
histories of discrimination obtain preapproval before implementing new voting
laws," said John Payton, LDF President and Director-Counsel. Payton observed
that the "the Voting Rights Act does not stand at the periphery of our
nation's long march to greater political equality -- it lies at its core."

The case arose when a small utility district in Austin, Texas, filed a 2006
lawsuit days after President Bush signed the law extending the Act for 25
years. Texas is one of a select number of states covered by Section 5 because
of its well-documented history of voting discrimination -- a history recently
noted by the Supreme Court in a 2006 case concerning a mid-decade
redistricting plan. Section 5 has blocked and deterred hundreds of
discriminatory voting practices in Texas and other states where the law
applies.

Debo P. Adegbile, LDF Director of Litigation, will argue the case on behalf of
Appellee Intervenors, alongside the United States. "This law keeps us on the
road to progress and there is no good reason for us to chart a different
path," observed Adegbile. Other Intervenors in the litigation are represented
by the nation's leading voting rights advocates including MALDEF, ACLU, the
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, PFAW, Texas RioGrande Legal
Aid, and the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr.

ABOUT LDF
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) is America's legal counsel
on issues of race. Through advocacy and litigation, LDF focuses on issues of
education, voter protection, economic justice and criminal justice. We
encourage students to embark on careers in the public interest through
scholarships and internship programs. LDF pursues racial justice to move our
nation toward a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click
appropriate link.
Debo Adegbile
https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=78362
John Payton
https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=77923

Contact: Mel Gagarin, (212) 965-2783 or mgagarin@naacpldf.org

SOURCE NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Mel Gagarin of NAACP Legal Defense Fund, +1-212-965-2783,
mgagarin@naacpldf.org