Supreme Court guts key part of landmark Voting Rights Act

Wait a minute, the members of OUR Congress must “shape a coverage formula grounded in current conditions?”
This is a joke, right? Half of those clowns are probably scratching their heads about a ‘coverage formula’. Any bets that they ‘form a committee’ to ‘look into’ that matter?
We’d have a better chance, as U.S. Citizens, DEMANDING that they balance the Federal Budget and get us back on the road to Prosperity.

Voting is obsolete in any event, but it is still nice to see conservatives undermining the state legitimacy of their own corporate regime.
We would have a better and certainly more representative government drafting officials from the ranks of lotto winners.

CountryPride…Re-read your comments twice to make sure I was not missing anything. I was right the first time I read it: you did not make any sense. I wasted my time trying to understand a fool.

More power to states to try to keep minorities from voting.

Fascist ideology continues its inexorable march forward in this ever more broken United States of America. Congrats to the Supreme Court and their oh so erudite, albeit medieval views.

Relax, Democrats. Remember, one does not need to show citizenship to register to vote, only residency in the precinct. Arizona’s attempt to fix that was just squashed last week. So, no worries. Illegal aliens will be reliably handing elected offices to Democrats until we financially collapse.

Imagine that members of “victim groups” protesting this. Who’da guessed?

“More power to states to keep minorities from voting.” Any evidence of that “crod526″? Oh, and wonderful inflammatory rhetoric “MAULAU”. Doesn’t make any sense, but very emotionaly inspiring.

SCOTUS legally step by step moves America backwards towards a white supremacy corporatocracy. Our democratic representative republic is failing.

I only have to ask this question and the answer will unveil all.

What happens on that bright and glorious day when parity is achieved and the NAACP is no longer necessary? Will they cease to exist? Will they board the windows, bolt the doors and pull up stakes?

Good.

The supreme court sent a message to congress today. “Get off your ^@#$ and do something worthwhile more than once every 50 years.”

The left could cry foul if the whole article was struck down but since it wasn’t then they can’t legitimately complain. Well played (finally) by Roberts.

@mustafaspeaks and others…Seriously folks? It’s time to wake up. The 1960′s are 5 decades past us now. We’ve progressed guys, this is a good thing! We are not going back to the Jim Crow days. The only thing that stops blacks (or anyone) from voting these days is themselves. I have to wonder if the opposition to this SC decision is due to the NAACP and other groups afraid they’ll lose power. They are becoming victims of their own success.

Voter ID laws backfired on the GOP last time out. They reminded us of what the intent of the GOP is. It’s why they struggle now and why they will continue to struggle. Because, when they get a chance to act, they act as their critics say they will. There was a period in the 80s when they were able to convince people they aren’t really like this, but now their actions give us no doubt.

Now that they can make their own laws, they can bring back the poll tax. You can say that would be unlawful, but it would take years to work through the court. So now, they can pass a law having to do with polling and have it in place for many years even if it is unlawful. And, by the time it is finally overturned they can have a different law in place. Thus regardless of the legality or illegality of the laws they pass they can discriminate against voters they percieve as not their constituencies. Of course this can be and is done in all other states too, usually, again, backfiring on the implementers of the discrimination. It just that these states required to seek review from the feds have a history of severe discrimination. They likely haven’t changed either.

This means American voters who believe in civil rights must do a better job of electing representatives who will strongly support civil rights. Without federal surveillance these states will not let blacks and others they don’t like vote. There must be a means of assuring the rights of all voters in all states or this will be a major setback for the US.

A great SCOTUS decision; after 50 years of Fed oversight, they are asking for an intelligent re-assessment of what controls are needed today; this is not 1965…
Let’s all remember that this is a country founded on ‘States Rights’; not unabridged Fed Govt.. I think we all agree that our States are much better governed than our Fed Govt (California excepted); It’s time to shrink Big Govt, and let the States chat our future.. They can’t do any worse job than Obama……….

Here is a great example on how Congress did NOT use its powers under the Constitution. Congress COULD HAVE prevented the Court from hearing the case under Article III, Section 2 which denies SCOTUS appeallete rights if Congress so deems. Loss of power of the Congress. It’s all there for any h.s. student to read and understand. But Congress doesn’t have the intelligence of 16 year olds or can’t read the Constitution.

USARealist – ‘ The only thing that stops blacks (or anyone) from voting these days is themselves.’ Seriously? Are you on Mars or something you ignoramus? You really have no idea what Refuglicans are doing with voting rights and gerrymandering to try and steal elections in the next cycle?? You do read the news, don’t you??

Why is it that the VAST majority of uninformed dingleberrys are always on the (usually far) right? You nutters live an extraordinarily myopic existence. Get out of your cave and go research the above plots to accost voting rights. It’s real, it’s ongoing and unless patriots put a stop to it, it will have an impact. Anyone who espouses this abuse of our hard won RIGHTS to vote is not a real American.

Personally, I had no problem with AZ’s attempt at verification. But our SC is ruining the country as much as the do nothing Congress.

i like the ruling it is nice to interpret constitution by time…

but now we are more of a settled country (no more wild wild west)… so will these judges interpret right to bear arms for these changing conditions… i am scared of this rule because they can come after our rights to have AK-47s by saying nobody needs to have guns anymore… i love my AK-47…

Oh yes, upcoming election year..the wheels are in motion.
Maneuver, Manipulate and Discourage the greater population to get out and have their vote count. The less voters, the less valid election.

For the People of the People by the People. Raise your voices America!

Wow minorities? Who are we talking about here again?
In most southern states, white people are the minority.
Sorry, but it’s time to play a new card from that deck.

Who else here would love to see a movie about cowboys with AK-47s?

“mustafaspeaks wrote:
Heck, those white people in the South would bring back Jim
Crow in a second, and probably chattel slavery too.”

Oh my, Mustafa, did you know that you have morphed into a racist?-very ironic.

If voting was so repressed, how does one rationalize the sitting President securing over 90% of the black vote (100% in some precincts–a statistical impossibility) and 70% of the Hispanic vote in the last election?

We even deliver ballots in foreign languages. All of the comments about repression and the reimplementation of the poll tax and discriminatory policies is mere drivel when once considers the SC just stated you don’t even have to prove your a citizen. Just show up, prove you’re standing there, and you vote. And with mail-in ballots, one does not even have to prove you exist and are the person completing the ballot. In Chicago, dead people still vote.

You want to know who is discriminated against–people living in rural areas! See Colorado–where voters in Denver and Boulder stack the state legislature (due to their overwhelming numbers) who then mandate programs for the rural counties. So the Denver/Boulder voter block elect two liberal senators, and rural voters elect Conservatives to the House to keep these same Senators in check. All the x-Californians came here to get away from that mess in Sacramento and then vote the same way in Colorado. Not smart enough to figure out they are the problem.

This is pretty simple. The Republican politicians can’t appeal to minorities, but minorities’ votes are winning elections, so what do they have to do? Make voting extremely difficult for minorities. How do they do that? Oh let’s see: redistricting, implementing new and difficult voter ID requirements, chip away at Section 5…

And who are the Republicans? Corporations. Who does Congress answer to? Corporations.

See, this is simple. It really ISN’T about direct racial discrimination, it’s about elections and the politics of big money.

Helping the Republicans on the street doesn’t matter to any in Congress one bit, although they love to wax poetic about American freedom (NSA anybody?) but restraining the votes of millions of minorities matters to them a great deal. They lose sleep over that.

State sovereignty is being miss used against the Constution

Thank your Reuters for removing the word “guts” from the previous title. Folks respect reporting without the hype. The facts only, please.

Seems like a reasonable decision to me. Treat all states equally, no special scrutiny to certain states/regions, just make sure NONE of them enact laws (like the GOP been trying to do) that put an undue burden on certain groups to be exercise their right to vote.

Stephen Colbert said it best -

Arguing against the Voter Rights Act is like an abusive ex-boyfriend insisting that his restraining order no longer necessary because he hasn’t beat her since the order was placed.

@USAPragmatist, then there would be no need to go after Section 5, and it would be letting the foxes guard the hen house.

Signs of a dying Republican party…can’t win, so cheat and pervert the process.

JL4 is absolutely correct. The only citizens that matter to the GOP are corporate citizens. If you vote Republican and you do not have at least three millions dollars in assets you are a gullible idiot.

We are all owned by banks and corporations. Your tax dollars afford the rich their lavish lifestyles. But that is what America is all about right now. Oppress the poor and squeeze them for every penny in order to subsidize government corruption and corporate greed.

We are powerless in our own political process which means it will take a massive act of violence to change this. Other countries have already figured that out. It’s a shame the country claiming to be “the greatest” can’t seem to figure it out like so many others have.

More and more I feel like I have arrived on a different planet. And not in a good way.

@USARealist, why you’re right! It was just last year I saw black and white Americans in Birmingham Alabama standing together in solidarity as they protested gay marriage. What progress!

The racial and class warfare continues. Just reading the remarks above indicates that we have allowed the political class to define who and what we are. Everyone is categorized as a member of some group–because the politicians find it to their exclusive advantage. The President has mastered this science, of dividing Americans into groups, and promising benefits(and condemning) accordingly, all the while securing financial support from those whom he condemns. However, I will bet my last dollar that each of you disagrees with some part of the political landscape you embrace; especially when you consider most Americans are politically in the middle, and fiscally conservative.

One would think that parents have different motivations for their children based on the hue of their skin, or their religion, or their gender. I find that working people each have many common goals for themselves and their families–regardless of their race, religion or their gender. Because I do not associate with people who perceive themselves as victims first, who are consumers of welfare and a myriad of government services, I have nothing in common with them; nor do I have any idea just what they expect from this country; and ultimately, me as a working taxpayer (except I need to pay “more”.)

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. It’s an American issue. It’ like saying a family in New Jersey has nothing in common with a family in Colorado. For those ideologues who embrace the philosophy of victimhood and a myriad of differences (as noted by the comments above) I just don’t believe we are that much different. Stop identifying yourself first as a Republican or Democrat, a liberal or conservative, remove the hyphen from your ethnic history and religious persuasion, and we just might be able to do something where everyone can benefit–as Americans. None of us will ever get everything we want, and unless you fail to step up and assume personal responsibility, no one will get totally screwed either.

What does it matter when they only give you crappy choices to choose from and no matter who gets voted in they are working for the same psychos!

It’s about time they got rid of that discriminatory law. Apply it to all or get rid of it I say.

The over-hyped here is both comical and sad. The court simply said to revise or eliminate a formula for determining which states must have their changes reviewed ahead of time instead of being challenged. People who care about voter rights should be more interested in having them applied equally than singling out citizens of certain states for special treatment.

Most, however, seem more interested in pushing old biases, demonizing others, and advancing conspiracy theories than taking a practical look at what the act means in the 21st century. It’s no wonder we get the lame political class we have today. These reactions are probably the reason Congress didn’t update the law correctly in 2006.

State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is where I live go figure!

Since Obama is upset about this I decided to read a little. Oh yeah, the party in power in Washington is upset because they just lost a little of it to the local governments. Why is this a bad thing?

Shame on Reuters. The Supremes did not “gut” a core part of the Voting Rights Act, they simply told Congress to do what they had told them to do eight years ago, i.e., to pass legislation reflecting current, rather than 1965 conditions.

Conservatives once again f**king people who don’t LOOK white and THINK like their little pea brains. The bright side? Repubs won’t win another major election in the next 1,000 years.

I agree with the five judges that the law should be updated to cover current (and future) conditions. That should include the disenfranchisement efforts being conducted in Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida, and other states. It’s not a North vs South issue anymore, it’s a fascism vs the Constitution issue now.

There’s not much publicity about it, but several boroughs in NYC are under federal approval as well, just like some southern states.

What did Obama/Holder do when shown the video of the black panthers in NJ threatening white voters with baseball bats…..

They did NOTHING!

They are racist! We don’t need any racist in leadership positions in the US

This shouldn’t bother Democrats at all. They basically bought the election. Free money for everyone that is too lazy to work and higher taxes for those that do. Tax the conservatives and give the money to the lazy half of America. Buying votes! Entitlement programs = guaranteed Democrat vote. Keep American lazy and divided.. not only by race, but also by socioeconomic standing as well. Good job Democrats! Keep up the good work and keep the minorities as your voting slaves.

Look who is fear mongering now, LOL. Like the NSA and the IRS, one must keep a watch on how the Government maintains our rights. Any credible evidence of voter fraud, and intimidation must be brought to the light of day. Even when you love the administration. It is our freedom. Don’t get all star struck from how wonderful the current president is right now. Once we give our freedoms away, they will belong to every administration that follows.

@Obsilutely, what a great job you did channeling Karl Marx and Vladamir Lenin. Do I sense a threat in your manifesto of a massive act of violence? Well, bring it on. I have the ability, the inclination, the resources and the backing to thin the herd. We will see in 2014 if we are a dying party, or as you anarchists like to say, a dying white breed. And remember sweet cheeks, I’ll be waiting for you.

I love how the progressive mind works. A law was implemented, 40 years later it has worked, and modern attitudes have changed, BUT now that the law is modified, all the progressive’s in unison scream “The sky is falling!” “The sky is falling!” “The sky is falling!” “The sky is falling!” “The sky is falling!”

WOW! This sure caused an uproar among the lefties, especially the likes of the Congressional Black Caucus who find racism under every rock, bias in every law, and desire to continue their “victim politics” so they can get perpetually reelected. MSNBC is going nuts today. Is that surprising to anyone?

Part of the problem stems from the lack of explicit language in the US constitution specifying the right to vote. Instead amendments to the constitution address a limited number of practices that shall not be used to interfere with voting. This leaves the field open to inventive new forms of discrimination. The constitution needs an amendment that EXPLICITLY states the fundamental right to vote. See the petition at:

http://petitions.moveon.org/right-to-vote-amendment-1/

Justice O’Connor signaled this before she retired and had no real problem with it. Neither do I. Good law should reflect societal conditions as they are, unless those conditions represent an egregious affront to the natural rights of man as enumerated in the Constitution. How can you look at US society today and say we’ve made no progress since 1965 and nothing should change? I am sad that POTUS used this decision to lance a healing wound. Mr. Obama’s comments are hurtful and reflect a sort of brattiness that does not become the Leader of the Free World.

Dead people can vote in Vermont … are people really prevented from voting? You can be homeless and still vote. You do not ID and can still vote. In Philly here in PA, they say, Vote early and vote often. I love how people throw out comments about the Dems or Reps as if there is one group in the act of disenfranchising another. The two parties have corrupted our political system and they BOTH culpable. Blaming one or the other as if one of the is innocent is unproductive.

I’m totally disappointed in the current Supreme Court. We just allowed the states to discriminate again. Of course they’ll find create ways to accomplish this goal.

Lets organized bus loads of people that need ID’s and line up the local DMV’s in all the states to insure that each and ever one has the proper drivers license or valid picture ID. Don’t wait, lets line up now.

I hope they have enough staffing and are prepared for the masses to show up.

“Just as the Citizens United decision led to an explosion of unregulated dark money spending in US elections, so too will the loss of Section 5 encourage many more of the shadowy voter suppression attempts that we saw in 2012. What will that mean in practice? Texas’ voter ID law, which was blocked under Section 5 by a federal court last year and could disenfranchise up to 800,000 registered voters without government-issued photo ID, will immediately go into effect. The states of the Old Confederacy will return to the pre-1965 playbook, passing new voter suppression laws that can only be challenged, after years of lengthy litigation, in often-hostile Southern courts, with the burden of proof on those subject to discrimination, rather than those doing the discriminating. Conservatives will be emboldened to challenge the parts of the VRA, like Section 2, that apply nationwide.”

http://www.thenation.com/blog/174973/what-supreme-court-doesnt-understand-about-voting-rights-act#

So begins the new Republican mantra, “If you can’t beat ‘em, silence ‘em.”

I don’t think this should be any surprise with the conservative judges appointed by Republicans. If they think for one minute that prejudice is a thing of the past in South, they are really out of touch with reality.

In Philadelphia, my home town, we saw with our own eyes, true voter suppression by the New Black Panthers. I also saw what happened at the Democratic convention when the President of the United States suppressed the vote of every single Democratic delegate who voted against the inclusion of the words Jerusalem and God into the party platform. If you’re going to prattle on about imaginary suppression, first deal with cold concrete cases that occurred until liberal Democratic rule aka The Animal Farm.

Mac20nine and others: there is no constitutional right to vote in the United States.

To those who are saying this is an outdated law that is unneeded, you’re living in a fantasy world. First off, it was updated multiple times, including 2006, with bipartisan support. Second, post racial america is nothing but a comforting dream for many white people and most conservatives. Yet we’re so post-racial that we still have segregated proms in southern counties, national figures day dreaming about the good, old southern days, conservatives on caught on video defending slavery as a good deal for blacks, Americans putting up lynched models of our president in their yards, racial slurs being thrown left and right at our president, and on and on I can go. Yeah, we have changed alright; Racism has just gone under the social current, so it isn’t upfront anymore, but you’re a fool if you think large swaths of Americans wouldn’t partake in and even promote racist behavior and policies. Section 5 should of been updated by congress in the last forty years to apply to all states to insure Americans rights to vote, but it should not have been struck down as a result of congress not doing this. Well any non-conservative out there, it now is your job to insure those affected by the wave of onerous voter laws already coming down the pipe line in less then a day are informed and get to the polls.

Feudi, that line about the new black panther party has been debunked numerous times. And you should worry about your own party first. Ron Paul supporters weren’t exactly given proper representation last year at your own convention. Clean your own house before commenting on ours. We’re trying to flush out as many of these corporate hacks as we can, but I can’t say the same for your party, who just keeps electing the same pro-corporate, bigoted hacks over and over.

it was the part where, if you vote dem or gop. that your vote counts at all. but that part is already moot post corporations united.

There’s nothing we can do about this ruling. Get to work people. Get your voter ID’s. Do not let them get you down. Do not let them keep you from voting. Show them the people will prevail. There will be consequences to every action. Look what happen in Florida when Scott tried to suppress the votes, it had the reverse affect. Truth and fairness will prevail. Young people and minorities…republicans are trying to suppress your vote, don’t let them! Register and register early with the correct ID. Be ready to vote!

Would Obama been re-elected with these laws in place? I think not, look what that’s done for our country.

Its about damn time this court did something right. Equality is the issue and this Voting Rights act has unfortunately given this country an executive who should never have been elected, due to his massive dislike for most people NOT of color (considering that all people have some color pigment). He was elected directly because of the 1965 voting rights act (now outdated) for the purpose of which the act previously supported the notion that a Black President may be elected due to government intervention. Well, Obama was elected, although there are so many more black men who would have done a more significant job in helping the American people at large. Unfortunately we have a sentimentalist who reacts to every extreme squeaky wheel in Washington. Thank you Supreme Court!

This only means that the states who hate the fact that blacks and women can vote, will pass more restrictive laws to keep them from doing so…. They only want white men of property to be able to vote…. They haven’t advanced an inch since the 1830′s… that’s why they’re call ‘conservative’ – resist change at all times, live in the past, enslave the poor and people of color…. that’s what they do…

This only means that the states who hate the fact that blacks and women can vote, will pass more restrictive laws to keep them from doing so…. They only want white men of property to be able to vote…. They haven’t advanced an inch since the 1830′s… that’s why they’re call ‘conservative’ – resist change at all times, live in the past, enslave the poor and people of color…. that’s what they do…

@Mac20nine…Are you insane? The voting rights act needs to be applied to ALL states. Right now, only the south is singled out. Can you predict the future? What’s to stop a Northern or Western state from singling out a group (any group) in the future? Protecting voting rights is not just for southern blacks, its for everyone, including you and me.

@USA pragmatist….I know you are far more liberal than me, but I thank you for making a 100% correct point in few words.

Anybody who opposes this ruling is either (1) insane like mustafa and mac20, (2) not thinking long-term. Let’s update the law, apply it to all states and be done. We should be grateful to the court for forcing something that should have been done 30 years ago.

@Mac20nine…Are you insane? The voting rights act needs to be applied to ALL states. Right now, only the south is singled out. Can you predict the future? What’s to stop a Northern or Western state from singling out a group (any group) in the future? Protecting voting rights is not just for southern blacks, its for everyone, including you and me.

@USA pragmatist….I know you are far more liberal than me, but I thank you for making a 100% correct point in few words.

Anybody who opposes this ruling is either (1) insane like mustafa and mac20, (2) not thinking long-term. Let’s update the law, apply it to all states and be done. We should be grateful to the court for forcing something that should have been done 30 years ago.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
MLK

In order for the above to work it MUST be applied equally. In order to be color blind one cannot have one rule for one location and another for the other.

The very essence of claiming a ‘privilege’ negates the entire premise of judging ‘by the content of their character’.

The activist on the supreme court just gave the states the rights to come up with creative ways to make the voting experience more difficult for many Americans. In Texas, the republican run senate has plans to decrease the polling places in minority communities by 80%; the early voting days will be decreased significantly; same day registration will be eliminated; Sunday voting before the election will be eliminated. Why make this constitutional right more difficult? I truly believe that these new Jim Crow laws will only energize the minority base and we will see an even larger turn out. This will back fire on the GOP. Just as the freedom riders did in the 1960′s, we will see bus loads of people showing up at the DMV’s for ID’s. If the GOP would stand up to their fringe group like the tea party and fox news (which really is not a news source), maybe they would appeal to more Americans and would not have to go to extreme measures to limit voting. Voter fraud has never been an issue in the past. And I have not seen any statistics to support this idea of voter fraud. I would agree with the argument that one fraudulent vote is too many, and I also strongly agree that denying any US citizen their right to vote is even worse. It’s ludicrous to believe that an undocumented immigrant would risk being deported just to cast a vote. Only the changing demographics of the US has struck fear in the GOP. An elected GOP official in the state of Pennsylvania actually admitted that the voter ID law would get Romney in the white house. Anyone who does not understand what these states are doing is delusional.

I was curious to read what was in Section 4, since it’s the topic of the article. Oh well. Section 2, mentioned briefly at the end, seems to negate the whole issue.

The United States Supreme Court is out of touch and as an American I am disheartened by this ruling (and many others). Their judgments seem to be becoming more and more politically motivated rather than constitutional. #NoCountryForMinorities

All 50 states should be required to get federal approval for changing voting regulations. Otherwise these states are being treated as second-class states in the Union. Equal protection under the law doesn’t just apply to voters rights, but also to the rights of state governments in determining their affairs under the oversight and accountability of the federal government.