On Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act that was enacted in 1965 to root out racial discrimination in voting. The specific section of the Act that was stricken — Section 4 — set forth a formula for determining which jurisdictions need federal clearance before making even minor changes to voting procedures. The impact of striking Section 4 is that the most important part of the Act, Section 5, is now rendered useless. Section 5 provides that states, cities, and counties with a history of racial discrimination in voting must “pre-clear” changes to voting procedures with the Department of Justice or a special court in Washington, D.C. Without the formula in Section 4 to determine which states, cities, and counties the preclearance should apply to, the preemptive protection provided by Section 5 no longer exists, and any future challenges to changes in voting procedure must happen after such changes are already in effect.
Read the rest of today’s post at Sojourners.
jamie calloway-hanauer 
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Wish you learned from Paula Deen Jamie . have you noticed what has happened to her ? She has been beaten up pretty good , lost her career , and exposed to the national public . Bigotry is no longer supported by the mass majority of us . Seems most of us have moved on , you seem to be wanting to fight the Civil war all over again . Good news , the Union won , Good news is those beliefs are not even close to the norm , isolated , ridiculed openly when exposed . Playing the race card helps in politics , but in the general life of we the people , has little consequence . In fact I would argue that those of the democratic party , especially the leftist aspect have hurt minorities and made them more dependent on with the belief that government should control the lives of others . Not much different then the views of those the Voting Rights Bill originally was needed. The Court’s decision ruled against government controlling people , good news for all of us .
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Thanks for reading and commenting! Yes, I do know what has happened to PD and I feel quite bad for her. She has apologized and should be forgiven. That said, I’ve read the complaint against her, and *if* the allegations are true, certain harassment laws do apply. Those who PD contracts with likely (in part) didn’t renew her contract because they realized they also needed to cover their own rears from lawsuits. PD has, in fact, received a ton of support from a certain contingent. Anyway, the bigger issue here is the VRA, and only time will tell if the Court made the right decision yesterday. I sincerely hope time proves that the Court did indeed rule correctly. This is an instance where I would love to be proved wrong!
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