(Article changed on February 28, 2013 at 10:24)
(Article changed on February 28, 2013 at 08:11)
"stripes and stars" by Marta Steele
Hundreds of demonstrators showed up early this
morning in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building to participate in a rally
protesting the likely Supreme Court decision to overturn Section 5 of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Sponsored by some sixty-two civil rights
organizations, including NAACP, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights under Law, SEIU, the League of Women Voters, and
Rainbow Push, the all-day event began with a Congressional press
conference from 8:30 to 9 that included Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and civil rights icon John
Lewis
(D-GA), who were among those who attending the historic hearing.
Section 5 of the VRA requires preclearance from a federal
court or the U.S.
Department of Justice for new election laws in all or parts of 16
states with a history of minority voter suppression . Many of those covered
states are in the South , as the VRA was initially passed in 1965 as a
response to Jim Crow era suppression, and as part of the Congressional mandate
of the 15 th Amendment, ratified 95
years earlier in 1870, to "enforce [the amendment] by appropriate
legislation."
The majority of participants in yesterday's rally were
African Americans, along with Latinos, Asian Americans, LGBTQs, and whites.
Many had traveled from as far away as the deep South, including Mississippi and
Alabama, said by one speaker to be the two states that had delivered the fewest
votes for Obama in 2012 [fewest, with
such large black populations?].
The rally itself, hosted by Joe Madison of
Sirius XM Radio, lasted from 9am well into
the early afternoon . A post- hearing conference call
with NAACP , LDF,
ACLU, and the Lawyers'
Committee
for Civil Rights Under the Law was followed by a bus trip to
Richmond by the Freedom Riders for Voting Rights, who had come all the way from
Selma, Alabama, part of Shelby County, the now-infamous plaintiff in the case
argued today, Shelby County v Holder.
A " post-argument analysis blog
with legal experts and Alliance for Justice " will be held at 5:30 this
afternoon at http://afijjusticewatch.blogspot.com/search/label/VRAanalysis .
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