Rare News Desk
After U.S. Supreme Court ruling Tuesday to throw out a Section 4 formula of the Voting Rights Act that determined what jurisdictions required advance federal oversight, lawmakers in 15 states, many of them in the South, began moving toward changing their election procedures, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
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In Texas and Mississippi, lawmakers planned to require voters to show photo identification in order to receive a ballot, while Florida could allow voting hours to be set at the discretion of the governor and legislature. In Georgia, districts that Democrats had opposed during reapportionment are likely to be implemented by Republican legislators, the AP reported.
The 5-4 split decision came Tuesday on the case of Shelby vs. Holder, which had been brought by election officials in Alabama’s Shelby County, with the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the AP reported.
The court left Section 5 of the 1965 act in place but struck down Section 4 while giving Congress the opportunity to retool the preclearance sections which gave the Justice Department oversight in certain districts, the AP reported.
While Southern Republican politicians such as Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal hailed the decision as a recognition of progress, Democrats and civil rights attorneys criticized it as a setback and warned that laws would be passed to curtail minority voting power, the AP reported.
President Barack Obama called decision on the Alabama case “deeply disappointed,” the AP reported.
The Justice Department said is has 276 requests for preclearance and will issue guidance in a few days, the AP reported.
In his opinion, Roberts wrote that the Section 4 formula is obsolete because it is based on 1960s data, emphasizing that it can be re-legislated to reflect “current conditions,” the AP reported. The formula had required reviews for Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, as well as parts of California, Florida, Michigan, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota.
Voting with Roberts were Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the AP reported.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg penned the dissent, arguing that discrimination continues and requires continued oversight.
