Will falsely claimed 2006 extension of Voting Rights Act “was based on the evidence used for the 1975 extension”

In his January 18 Washington Post column, headlined “Voting Rights Anachronism,” George F. Will falsely claimed that the 25-year extension in 2006 of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 “was based on the evidence used for the 1975 extension — that of the 1972 and some earlier presidential elections.” However, as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stated in a May 2008 ruling, before extending the VRA in 2006, Congress “held extensive hearings and compiled a massive legislative record documenting contemporary racial discrimination in covered states” [emphasis added]. Indeed, as their committee reports make clear, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees examined evidence of discrimination since 1982 — the year of the last major reauthorization — in extending the VRA.

Section 5 of the VRA requires certain jurisdictions — including several states — to “preclear” changes in voting procedures with the Justice Department or with the D.C. District Court before implementing such changes.

In its May 2008 ruling on Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Mukasey – the case Will discussed and which will be argued before the Supreme Court — the D.C. District Court stated that “given the extensive legislative record documenting contemporary racial discrimination in voting in covered jurisdictions, Congress’s decision to extend section 5 [of the VRA] for another twenty-five years was rational and therefore constitutional.” The court also noted that “[o]ne of the comprehensive reports Congress requested and relied heavily upon came from the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act. … The Commission held ten hearings around the country, heard testimony from more than one hundred witnesses, and compiled a record of several thousand pages.” The Commission’s final report, titled “Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act at Work, 1982-2005,” examined “whether serious and widespread vote discrimination has continued since the Act’s last major reauthorization in 1982.”

A May 2006 report by the House Committee on the Judiciary, submitted by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), found that “vestiges of discrimination in voting continue to exist as demonstrated by second generation barriers constructed to prevent minority voters from fully participating in the electoral process.” The report stated that during oversight hearings, the committee examined evidence of the VRA’s effectiveness “over the last 25 years” and “assembled over 12,000 pages of testimony, documentary evidence and appendices from over 60 gr

Related posts: Nbc today show, Royal caribbean cruise, Colts titans, Simply supplements, Jo newman

Recently:

• Alaska fish and game
• Come get these blocks
• Kamboja
• Live cricket streaming
• Star clippers
• 4 personality types
• Company formation
• Tom lehrer
• Facebook gold account
• Serenity