Facing Court Challenge, Experts Say Voting Rights Act Is Still Needed
Feature Story by Daniel Wolf - 5/23/2007
Discrimination in voting persists and the federal oversight provision of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) is constitutional, according to legal briefs filed in federal court on May 15.
On August 4, 2006, just six days after the President signed the renewal of the historic law, the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District in Texas (MUD) filed suit in federal court claiming the VRA is no longer needed and unconstitutional.
According to its original complaint, the MUD seeks to escape the requirement found in Section 5 of the VRA, which mandates that jurisdictions with a history of discriminatory activity in voting receive federal approval of all changes in voting laws before such changes can take place.
The complaint states that "the conditions that caused Texas to be covered under Section 5 have long been remedied," and that the courts should strike down the VRA.
Experts believe the case is likely on a direct path to the Supreme Court, where the VRA's constitutionality would be considered sometime in 2008.
In response to the MUD's lawsuit, many civil rights organizations have mobilized—as they did during last year's reauthorization before Congress — to defend the VRA in federal court.
"This case has tremendous implications for the enforcement of the recently renewed provisions of the Voting Rights Act. A favorable ruling in this case would be consistent with the substantial body of evidence that Congress carefully amassed demonstrating the continuing need for the pre-clearance protections," said Ted Shaw, director counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who is defending the VRA in federal court.
In addition to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, and Public Citizen have joined the federal government and Travis County, TX (where the MUD is located) in defending the VRA's constitutionality.
Originally passed in 1965, Congress has reauthorized the VRA five times, including last summer, when both the House and the Senate approved the measure overwhelmingly in a bipartisan manner.
Passed after a century of deliberate and violent denial of the vote to African-Americans in the South and Latinos in the Southwest – as well as many years of entrenched electoral systems that shut-out citizens with limited fluency in English – the VRA is often held up as the most effective civil rights statute ever enacted. It is widely regarded as enabling the enfranchisement of millions of minority voters and diversifying the electorate and legislative bodies at all levels of American government.
During last year's reauthorization of the VRA, Congress conducted over 20 hearings, heard from over 50 expert witnesses, and collected over 17,000 pages of testimony documenting the continued need for and constitutionality of the statute.
"While Congress certainly recognized that we have come a long way since the 1960s, discrimination still exists and the VRA is critically needed to help America to secure a lasting equality in the right to vote," said Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
