voting rights act
Why the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is necessary
“The vote is precious,” said Lewis. Fifty-five years after Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights Act, many Americans remain disenfranchised.
The right to vote only matters if it’s enforced
The voting rights provisions of the “For the People Act” should be uncontroversial.
When the attorney general does Congress's job for it
First Attorney General Eric Holder announces plans to make aggressive use of what’s left of the Voting Rights Act in order to make up for what the Supreme Court took away. Now he’s instructing prosecutors to leave out key details when bringing cases against nonviolent drug offenders, in order to keep mandatory minimum laws from kicking in.
Is the AG a politically nimble crusader, overstepping the bounds of his office to pursue his version of justice?
Not exactly.
After Section 5
I spent last week on a rural island in Wisconsin, where the Century was cosponsoring the Wisconsin Council of Churches' annual summer forum. It was a great event. It was also a pretty momentous news week, and there I was away from the office and mostly offline.
Since returning I've been taken aback by just how much more ink the Supreme Court's Defense of Marriage Act decision has gotten than its Voting Rights Act decision.