 |
|
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Jan. 18, 2009
22 Teves 5769
Voting rights anachronism
By
George Will
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When, beginning in 1901, the Supreme Court decided some cases about how the Constitution applied to overseas territories, Mr. Dooley, the meditative bartender created by Finley Peter Dunne, mused that "no matter whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not, th' supreme coort follows th' iliction returns." Actually, the court rarely "follows" election results in the sense of conforming rulings to them. But on the eve of this singular inauguration, the court has agreed to hear a case in which it must follow, in the sense of assess, last November's returns. The case concerns a manifestly anachronistic and therefore now constitutionally dubious provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
That year, because they had used many tactics to suppress voting by blacks, six states and some jurisdictions in other states were required to seek permission — "pre-clearance" — from the Justice Department for even minor changes in voting procedures. In 1975, the act was extended to cover Texas and two other states. The act's "bailout" provision, which ostensibly provides a path by which jurisdictions can end federal supervision, is so burdensome as to be often unusable. The pre-clearance requirements, which were originally intended to exist for five years, have been extended four times, most recently in 2006 — for 25 years. The Senate voted the extension to 2031 unanimously, which is evidence that genuflection had replaced reflection.
Now, however, a Texas utility district that did not exist until 1986 and that has never had a voting-related complaint says that the bailout provision has been virtually nullified by judicial interpretations. It further argues that the pre-clearance requirement — arguably the most intrusive law abridging states' sovereignty — was a response to a vanished emergency and is, after 44 years of racial progress, an indefensible violation of the Constitution's federal structure. The district argues that it "consigns broad swaths of the nation to apparently perpetual federal receivership" based on absurdly out-of-date evidence.
| FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO INFLUENTIAL NEWSLETTER |
| Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here. |
|
In 1966, the Supreme Court said the pre-clearance requirement was a "rational" response to that era's crisis. In 1997, however, the court held that, to be justified, such an infringement of states' self-government must demonstrate "congruence and proportionality" concerning the problem it addresses. The 25-year extension in 2006, which the Texas jurisdiction challenges, is incongruent and disproportionate because it was based on the evidence used for the 1975 extension — that of the 1972 and some earlier presidential elections. So the 2006 renewal is itself evidence that there are no contemporary findings of unconstitutional behavior proportional to the Voting Rights Act's sweeping 1965 remedy. In 2031, which will be 59 years after the 1972 election, Congress probably will reflexively extend this receivership — unless the court insists upon the pertinence of evidence.
Speaking of which, Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom — she of the Manhattan Institute, he a Harvard historian — say that Barack Obama's election demonstrates that another facet of the Voting Rights Act has lost its original, and even then spurious, rationale. Because "it is no longer possible to argue that racial identity is an insurmountable barrier to the highest office in the land" and because "there are no longer any meaningful racial barriers to voting or holding office in America," it is time to end the unseemly practice of racial gerrymandering to produce "majority minority" legislative districts to guarantee the election of minority candidates.
In 2006, when extending the act, Congress baldly asserted that discrimination continues to prevent "minority voters from fully participating in the electoral process." Nonsensical then, it is patently so after 2008, when for the first time the rate of black turnout probably equaled and perhaps surpassed the white rate.
Obama won a higher percentage of the white vote than Al Gore and John Kerry got in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Mississippi now has more black elected officials — not more per capita, more — than any other state. Yet some civil rights activists, clinging to certitudes and striking poses from glory days long gone, must face the evidently disconcerting fact of their success.
Unfortunately, the civil rights impulse has decayed into coarse political entrepreneurship, exploiting today's racial spoils system — what Chief Justice John Roberts has termed "a sordid business, this divvying us up by race" for the purpose of separate and unequal treatments. Those who, supposedly celebrating the Voting Rights Act, say it must not be changed are actually implying that it has not succeeded. The proper way to honor it is by retiring the pre-clearance provision that it has rendered anachronistic.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
George Will's latest book is "With a Happy Eye but: America and the World, 1997-2002" to purchase a copy, click here. Comment on this column by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006 WPWG
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|
