Push to overturn Voting Rights Act tied to GOP voter suppression efforts

[onehandle]

Source: MSNBC

The Washington D.C. lawyer representing the Alabama county that wants to strike down the heart of the most effective civil-rights law in history specialize in cases aimed at making voting harder for minorities.

William Consovoy—the lead attorney on the case—also last year argued on behalf of Republican officials in Florida and Ohio, who in both cases were seeking to significantly reduce the days allotted for early voting, which blacks take advantage of more than whites. Consovoy, a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, is a partner at Wiley Rein, a Washington, D.C., law firm that bills itself as the best in the country for election law.

The Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments in Shelby County v. Holder Wednesday. And the involvement of Consovoy and Wiley Rein in the case, which challenges the constitutionality of a key part of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), underlines the extent to which it’s a product of the broader partisan voter suppression campaign pushed by Republicans last year in a failed attempt to defeat President Obama.

In 2012, Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted caused an outcry when he ended early voting in the three days before Election Day for everyone except members of the military. The change would have made it harder for hundreds of thousands of Ohioans—disproportionately African-Americans—to vote. As Rachel Maddow and MSNBC.com noted at the time, Husted brought in Consovoy to defend the move in court, after it was challenged by the Obama campaign. Ultimately, the court required that the early voting days be restored.

Read more: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/25/push-to-overturn-voting-rights-act-tied-to-gop-voter-suppression-efforts

[sakabatou]

1. Just another reason why Republicans are scum

[freshwest]

8. +1,000

[drm604]

2. Of course it is.

Was there any doubt?

[The Wielding Truth]

3. They don't quit. They really want to destroy our democracy.

[Drale]

4. If I remember correctly the part of the law they are challenging

says that certain states (I don't remember which ones) have to get any voting changes approved by the Federal Government because of their history of racism. Theres an easy way to fix that if ruled unconstitutional make all states run their election laws by the Feds first.

[rhett o rick]

6. I dont think that will help. I believe the SCOTUS will rule that it's unconstitutional

for the federal government to interfere with states voting laws.

[annabanana]

7. I think that they will kill it because it doesn't apply evenly.

I think it would have a better chance if it was applied equally across the country.

[rhett o rick]

15. I would love that to be true, but as best I can read there is nothing in

the Constitution that permits the federal government to impose specific voting requirements on states. They have gotten around it so far because the federal government argued that it was necessary for them to put specific laws onto states in order to advance integration. I dont think it was ever challenged to the SCOTUS. I think they will rule 5 -4 against the law.

[Politicalboi]

16. Unless it's Marijuana

[rhett o rick]

17. What does MaryJane have to do with voting laws.

Oh wait. I get it. Is this Cheech Marin? If it is, "Dave's not here"

[L0oniX]

5. So when whites enventually become the minority ...then what? Dumb asses!

[TygrBright]

12. sssshhhh... Don't remind them. n/t

[Iliyah]

9. Michigan is being run like a dictatorship and a blue print

for the rest of the country via GOPs. Sound a lot like WW2 huh?

[SFnomad]

10. Democrats cherish the right to vote ....

Republicans fear it.

[Dawson Leery]

11. "States rights" is code for "allowing discrimination".

[another_liberal]

13. Jim Crow by any other name . . .

Jim Crow by any other name is still narrow-minded, racist and fundamentally unconstitutional Jim Crow. The Conservative Movement is signing its own death warrant with this kind of crap. Despite any temporary wins they may achieve with these cowardly efforts to suppress minority voting, they will lose, and lose big, in the end.

[iandhr]

14. I AM SHOCKED SHOCKED to find that gambling is going on here.

[Posteritatis]

18. "Specialize in cases aimed at making voting harder for minorities."

Just roll that phrase around in your heads for awhile.

[blkmusclmachine]

19. In other news, water is wet.