Supreme Court Decision Guts Voting Rights

The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a key part of the Voting Rights Act is an affront to the right to vote and our democracy.

CWA strongly criticized the decision, disputing the majority’s claim that the pre-clearance measures had worked sufficiently and should be dropped until Congress establishes a new standard.

“It wasn’t in 1956 that the Shelby County community of Calera, Ala., attempted to restrict the vote and the voice of its African-American citizens. It was just seven years ago, in 2006.

“This example, and too many more like it, clearly demonstrates that the Voting Rights Act is needed today more than ever.  Attempts to cut voting hours and polling places, limit early voting and restrict registration, especially targeting students, the elderly, people of color and the poor are all too pervasive in our nation today,” CWA said in a statement.

The results of this disastrous decision will be longer voting lines, more restrictive ID laws and a continued effort to block people from exercising their right to cast a ballot – voter suppression tactics that The Democracy Initiative has vowed to fight.

Here’s a report from Associated Press that shows voter suppression already underway:

“Across the South, Republicans are working to take advantage of a new political landscape after a divided U.S. Supreme Court freed all or part of 15 states, many of them in the old Confederacy, from having to ask Washington’s permission before changing election procedures in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination.

"After the high court announced its momentous ruling Tuesday, officials in Texas and Mississippi pledged to immediately implement laws requiring voters to show photo identification before getting a ballot. North Carolina Republicans promised they would quickly try to adopt a similar law. Florida now appears free to set its early voting hours however Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP Legislature please. And Georgia’s most populous county likely will use county commission districts that Republican state legislators drew over the objections of local Democrats.”

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who has been on the front lines of the fight for civil rights and voting rights, said, "My message to the members of the United States Supreme Court is: remember, don't forget, our recent history. Walk in our shoes […] come and walk in the shoes of those three young men that died in Mississippi. Come and walk in the shoes of those of us who walked across that bridge on 'Bloody Sunday,' March 7, 1965."

What his interview here.

CWA will continue to work with the NAACP and other allies to protect the right to vote for all citizens. The Democracy Initiative that CWA, the NAACP and environmental groups has founded will work for universal registration, as most democracies already use, to ensure that citizens are not deprived of their voice and their vote.