The strength of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, one of the monumental achievements of the Civil Rights Movement, continues to be assailed. On Monday, a federal appeals court issued a ruling effectively barring private citizens and civil rights groups from filing lawsuits, which has been a key provision of the law. It is a move that adds to the evisceration of the Act.
Only the federal government, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit ruled, can now legally challenge under Section 2 of the Act, a crucial element that prohibits election or voting practices that discriminate against Americans based on race.
Experts on the issue believe the ruling will be appealed, which means the conservative-leaning Supreme Court is the final arbiter. There is no absolute certainty that the court will abide by the weakening of the section since earlier this year, it found Alabama had drawn a racially discriminatory congressional map.
Even so, we cannot forget the damage done in 2013 when the court struck down Section 5 by a 5-to-4 vote, thereby freeing five states, mainly in the South, to change their election laws without federal approval. One of the main determinants in that decision centered on the question of whether racial minorities continued to face the historical Jim Crow barriers in those states. And that may yet be a factor in this latest iteration.
With our democratic rights perilously on the ropes, we need this law to be protected and guaranteed, particularly as we move into an election season that may be the most existential and consequential in our nation’s history.
Back in July, when gerrymandering was delivered a blow in Alabama, former Attorney General Eric Holder posited, “Other states should view this map [of Alabama] and this process, as both an example of basic fairness and a warning that denying equal representation to Black voters, violating the Voting Rights Act, and defying federal court orders is a direct tie to an odious past and will no longer be tolerated.”
Well, Eric, let’s see to what extent the odious past is still with us.
