The South is determined to rise again.
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It’s not even spring and once again Alabama has issued another challenge to the Voting Rights Act (VRA). They do this on a regular basis, which is probably friggin why the DOJ refuses to abandon Section 5 of the VRA.From Jurist:
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] heard arguments Wednesday on a new challenge to the Voting Rights Act of Act of 1965 (VRA) [materials]. Arguing before Judge John Bates, officials representing Shelby County, Alabama, together with a corps of conservative activists, argued that it is no longer constitutionally justifiable to subject Alabama and certain other states—virtually all Southern—to Section 5 [DOJ backgrounder] pre-clearance rules under the VRA, requiring them to clear changes in voting districts, polling places and other electoral processes with the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] or federal courts. The VRA was enacted to put an end to the systematic disenfranchisement of minority voters that ran rampant in Southern districts in the 1960s. Although the Senate extended the act [NYT report] an additional 25 years by an overwhelming 98-0 vote in 2006, its basis in a legacy of discrimination evidenced more than 45 years ago has gone largely unexamined. Bates expressed doubt [AP report] at the notion that the policy considerations underlying the VRA could be considered salient by the end of the extension, 70 years after its enactment. The DOJ argued that the act remains justified by a continued, observable pattern of more subtle means of racial discrimination at the polls in the Section 5 districts. Civil rights groups point to a 2009 case in which the DOJ invalidated [Birmingham News report] the 2006 redistricting of Calera, Alabama that eliminated the city’s only majority-black district and cost black incumbent Ernest Montgomery his council seat.
The rightwingers on SCOTUS would simply love to give the South what it wants and do away with portions of the VRA, but those braindead white folks in the southern states, that are determined to keep people of color from holding office and/or voting just can’t find their collective ass w/both hands long enough, to show the justices that they aren’t bigots and racists. I mean really, these intellectually retarded folks seriously tried to redistrict away a duly elected black man’s seat. How friggin wrong, not to mention obvious.. is that?
With the rise of the teabagger nation, I doubt they ever will get Section 5 to go away. Haley Barbour is just going to have to suck it up and deal.
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Scott, Dusty. Dusty said: The South is determined to rise again. http://t.co/TcG6PZw Fed Judge tells AL to take a hike again on Voter Rights Act request […]
When is that rapture thing again? Damn, but these people are fighting to go back to what, the 17th century.
Not to worry, according to the latest census, brown people are out birthing the morons handily. We’ll be a minority majority soon enough, thanks to brown bitches like me still in our child bearing years. I’m working on it, don’t get bent about it now, before I hear hurry up and do something then 🙂
Some of us are eagerly awaiting the adorable spawn of yours, Jess. I hope to be named as one of the god(less)mothers in absentia of course.
Not as much as we are believe me. We have got it covered many different ways right now. Bumping teh uglies and foster agency, adoption agencies in two different countries even. It just takes years to go through agencies. I could go steal babies but then I wouldn’t be around to raise them, so I took that off my to do list for now 🙂
Nope, they keep trying and trying and thank gawd and greyhound the DOJ and SCOTUS keep bitchslapping these fuckwads back. Jurist is a great resource for me on the VRA. I worked a long time ago to register voters and do community activism and it’s a cause close to my heart.
It never ends, does it?