By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
The preamble to the US Constitution says: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The US Constitution, ratified in 1789, is said to be the oldest charter remaining in continuous use anywhere in the world. Despite critical voting rights Amendments to the Constitution;
• The 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote in 1870,
• The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, gave American women the right to vote,
• The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, eliminated poll taxes,
• The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age for all elections to 18, progress toward justice for all, toward We The People truly meaning all people, moved us forward yet at a snail’s pace. The pace of progress has always been intentional in America.
From 1789, it took another 81 years before a black man could vote under the supreme law of the United States of America. Then another 50 years before women could vote. Then another 44 years before poll taxes were eliminated. Forming a more perfect union always has to be driven from on high in America – left to the states, our progress would be even slower, and perhaps none at all in Southern states.
Numerous federal laws had to be enacted to attempt to install protections against discrimination in voting that just never cease. The Amendments to the Constitution were insufficient.
We The People, threw off the oppression of King George III, but continue to be oppressors in our own land. Hence came “the Civil Rights Act of 1870, also known as the First Ku Klux Klan Act, in order to enforce the terms of the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited the states from denying anyone the right to vote based on race. The act provided criminal penalties for those attempting to prevent African Americans from voting by using or threatening to use violence or engaging in other tactics, such as making threats to terminate a person’s employment or evict them from their home,” per the Federal Judicial Center.
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 – the first significant measure to address African American civil rights since 1875 – established the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for two years, created a civil rights division in the U.S. Justice Department, and authorized the U.S. Attorney General to seek federal court injunctions to protect the voting rights of African Americans.
The Civil Rights Act of 1960 strengthened the provisions of the 1957 act for court enforcement of voting rights and required preservation of voting records. It also included limited criminal penalty provisions related to bombing and obstruction of federal court orders, aimed particularly at school desegregation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in the workplace, public accommodations, public facilities, and agencies receiving federal funds, and strengthened prohibitions on school segregation and discrimination in voter registration, both per The Library of Congress.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited voter discrimination based on race, color, or membership in a language minority group. It also required certain places to provide election materials in languages besides English. The act also placed limits on certain states with a history of voter discrimination. These states had to get federal approval before passing voter restrictions, per Federal Judicial Center. Ninety-five years since the first Civil Rights Act and the discrimination persisted – a long way from a more perfect union.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 had requirements for preclearance for certain states in their entirety and other select counties before any changes could be made to their election practices and procedures. The states covered were Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia. In addition, certain political subdivisions (usually counties) in four other states (Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and North Carolina were covered jurisdictions.
“In 2013, the effect of the Shelby County v. Holder decision was that the jurisdictions identified by the coverage formula in Section 4(b) no longer need to seek preclearance for the new voting changes, unless they are covered by a separate court order entered under Section 3(c) of the Voting Rights Act, “per the Department of Justice Division of Civil Rights. For 48 years these bad actors were restricted and monitored on any changes to their election’s practices, but then that blanket was removed.
Now, here we are ten years later, and “a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, whose rulings apply to Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, has struck down a key path for enforcing the Voting Rights Act, in a 2-1 vote, “per National Public Radio on November 20, 2023. Underneath it all, it’s about limiting protections for people of color by limiting challenges that can be made by private individuals and groups like the NAACP, who do not represent the U.S. government, but have for decades brought the majority of Section 2 cases to court.
In his dissent to this decision that will surely go to the Supreme Court, Chief Judge of the 8th Circuit, Lavenski R. Smith, wrote, “Until the [Supreme] Court rules or Congress amends the statute, I would follow existing precedent that permits citizens to seek a judicial remedy. Rights so foundational to self-government and citizenship should not depend solely on the discretion or availability of the government’s agents for protection.”
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