Voting Activists Warn of 'Trojan Horse' (1965 Voting Rights Act)

[struggle4progress]

By JEFFREY McMURRAY
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; 6:47 PM

WASHINGTON -- Key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act are set to expire soon, but staunch supporters warned Tuesday that a permanent extension could reverse many of the law's gains for minorities.

Some lawmakers may try to make permanent certain provisions that expire in 2007 in an attempt to torpedo the act, said Theodore Shaw, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Legal Defense Fund. Although Shaw acknowledged a permanent or nationwide approach may seem wise, he called it a "Trojan horse."

"If they are permanent, it is a trap," Shaw said. "They will be struck down as illegal and unconstitutional."

One part of the act set to expire is the provision that states with a history of racial discrimination _ mostly in the South _ must get federal government approval before changing their voting laws or district lines. Shaw said judges might decide Congress can't separate jurisdictions based on race issues without an occasional review of whether that separation remains necessary. <snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072601484.html

[quaoar]

1. The Voting Rights Act

should be extended to the entire nation -- and then made permanent.

[ray of light]

2. no it should not be made permanent.

To make it permanent makes it actually easier for the Supremes to knock down and call it unconstitutional. What makes it constitutional is that it lives and breathes and protects the areas that have a history of abuse while making it easy to add new ones too.

We absolutely can not have it struck down!

[journalist3072]

3. I am reminded....

Of how the Congressional Black Caucus raised the issue of the VRA of 1965 with Bush, the last time they met with him (during the crisis in Haiti).

They reminded him that certain portions of the Act were getting ready to expire. Bush said he "didn't know anything" about the Act; he was unaware of it, and told him he would certainly take a look at it when it came to his desk.

One of the landmark civil rights legislation of our time, and the POTUS says he's unaware of it!!

[meganmonkey]

4. Yikes -

This is complicated.

On instinct it's simple - of course the VRA should be permanent. But the provision about federal 'oversight'...they have enough of that as it is - HAVA is a fricking poorly written nightmare, and the only real positive reform of voting issues right now is happening at the state and county level. So that part makes me nervous. I am afraid the repukes are going to be able to manipulate this situation to their advantage...

Yikes.

[Doremus]

5. I'm sure the repigs aren't above manipulating this for their own advantage

If they do go there, maybe it'll spotlight once and for all the GOP culture of racism -- that is if there's anyone not yet convinced of that fact.