Bill to undo the DAMAGE SCotUS did to voting rights is out there, *sponsored by 'Tex' SENSENBRENNER*
Wow, a jaw dropper all around, first that something substantive like voting rights is even being considered by Congresscritters, and then that one of the main sponsors is he-of-the-Kotex-fortune who hates to be called "Tex."
Not to mention that all of us here, the children of Coup 2000, are still awaiting anything substantial to fix what allowed Coup 2000 to happen.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/a-step-toward-restoring-voting-rights.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
[font size=5](EDITORIAL) Step Toward Restoring Voting Rights [/font]
.... ...The court invited Congress to come up with a new formula.
That’s what the new bill does. Any state that has committed five or more election violations in a 15-year period, as determined by a court, would fall under federal supervision of voting changes. Cities and counties would be supervised if they committed three violations in 15 years, or if they committed a single violation and had persistently low minority turnout during that period. That supervision would allow the Justice Department to block newly imposed voter ID requirements.
The bill would permit courts to require federal supervision of a jurisdiction if a voting change has a discriminatory effect on a minority group, whether or not the effect is intentional. That would be an enormously important improvement over current law. Plaintiffs now are required to show that a state or city intended to discriminate, a difficult burden even when the effect is clear, particularly when politicians create phony justifications for their actions.
Under the proposed formula, Justice Department oversight would currently apply to only four states: Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. It would not apply to states like North Carolina, which in addition to imposing harsh voter ID requirements has also made voting more difficult in other ways, like restricting early voting or same-day registration. Those practices have not been ruled as constitutional violations by a court, in part because getting such a ruling is a difficult legal process.
But voter ID laws are exempted from this provision, and could not be cited in a lawsuit as a reason for a court to “bail in” a state or locality to federal supervision. This is an alarming flaw, particularly in light of the important decision last Friday by a Pennsylvania judge, who ruled that the state’s voter ID law violated Pennsylvania’s fundamental right to vote and had no legitimate purpose in fighting fraud.
The bill is sponsored by Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, and Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, among others, and several members from both parties have pledged to support it. Mr. Sensenbrenner said he was trying to persuade the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, to allow a vote on the bill, and said that he had to “jump through hoops” to garner Republican support. ....
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