Issue 120 Voting Rights Act July 15, 2013

Did you know that the Supreme Court overturned Section 8 of the Voting Rights act? The voting rights act was put together to protect all Americans from abuses with respect to being denied their right to vote. So any change or perceived change is going to be met with fear. But what exactly did the Supreme Court do to change the law. Read on to find out.

What is Section 8: Section 8 deals with States and territories of the United States that have traditionally been abusive toward black voters in the United States. These States include Texas, Alabama, Virginia, Alaska, etc, along with some specific counties in certain States. Section 8 contained a formula which determined if such places would be subject to federal jurisdiction when they wanted to change their voting laws. In short, these places needed to ask the federal government if they could change any laws with regards to voting, with the federal government deciding when it will no longer be required to administrate over these States and counties.

What happened: Just recently the Supreme Court ruled that the current version of Section 8 was invalid. It was a decision made in a 5 to 4 vote with the swing vote belonging to Justice Kennedy siding with the conservative faction of the Supreme Court. Therefore under court order the States no longer have to abide by Section 8's standards. This makes every State in the entire U.S. equal with respect to autonomy to making and enforcing their own voting laws. However, there is a catch. The Court also said that the Congress must update the formula in Section 8 to meet with the current treatment of racial and ethnic minorities of the current century. As such the Supreme Court rather than legislate from the bench told in an off handed way that congress if they feel a need to, can update and change Section 8. So Section 8 is still there on the books, but cannot be enforced in its current form.

What’s ahead: It is highly possible that Congress will update section 8, but I personally doubt that Republicans will allow it to happen under President Obama's watch. They, I feel, don't want any law that can potentially have the Democrats being able to control the laws on voting in traditionally Republican leaning areas of the country. So Republicans may wait and see who is President by the next election.

As to the issue of possible racism at the voting booth. This also seems like a very unlikely scenario. Our country has thankfully evolved from a nation of hypocrites and bigots to a more tolerant nation (though that is so long as we as human beings keep finding new targets to character assassination). So the possibility that black Americans and other people of different colors other than white will feel any form of voter manipulation or intimidation by government is from my perspective very unlikely.

Conclusion: We now enter a game of wait and see. Will congress update the law? Are the last vestiges of racial discrimination in the voting booth going to rear its ugly head? Only time will tell. Though I think we are going to be just fine without Section 8.