Testimony Before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary: Congressional Authority to Protect Voting Rights After Shelby County v. Holder

This chapter discusses the legal battles over the issue on voting rights in Texas. The Voting Rights Act, with its preclearance requirements for the South, was adopted in 1965 and reauthorized in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006. A few days after the 2006 reauthorization, the municipal utility district (MUD), created in Austin, Texas, in the 1980s, sued the U.S. attorney general, claiming that it should be allowed the advantage of the “bailout” (from preclearance) provisions of the Act. Edward Blum was the man behind the lawsuit. The chapter examines the MUD case and the one that followed it, Shelby County v. Holder. It also considers the efforts of Republicans to prevent voter fraud in the state through voter identification, resulting in SB 14, or voter ID bill, in the Texas Senate.

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Commissioner Gail Heriot Statement and Rebuttal in the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ An Assessment of Minority Voting Rights Access in the United States

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3249121 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Gail L. Heriot

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Voting Rights ◽

The United States ◽

The U.S

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The Second American Republic

The Second American Revolution ◽

10.5149/northcarolina/9781469652733.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 11-55

Author(s):

Gregory P. Downs

Keyword(s):

Civil War ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Voting Rights ◽

Constitutional Change ◽

Military Force ◽

Military Rule ◽

The U.S ◽

Constitutional Changes

What made the U.S. Civil War a domestic revolution? This chapter examines the reliance upon military force and oddly constituted congresses to override judicial controls and create constitutional change meant to permanently remake the country’s economic and political base. The chapter narrates the reliance upon military rule and unusual forms to create the constitutional changes of emancipation, civil rights, and voting rights. Thus the chapter demonstrates that the U.S. Civil War did not merely restore a republic but created a new one.

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Three Films for Young Adults and Families

Charles Burnett ◽

10.1525/california/9780520285521.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

James Naremore

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Voting Rights ◽

Black History ◽

Young Girl ◽

Baseball Player ◽

Voting Rights Act ◽

The U.S

Burnett made three television films about black history aimed chiefly at children or young adults and their families. This chapter examines all three, giving primary attention to Nightjohn, which is by far the most important. Selma, Lord Selma deals with the bloody civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, which led to the U.S. Voting Rights Act. Finding Buck McHenry concerns a youth-league baseball player who discovers that the janitor in his school was once a star in the negro baseball leagues. Nightjohn is the story of an escaped slave who returns to slavery and risks his life to secretly teach other slaves how to read and write. His student is a brave young girl named Sarny, who carries on his mission.

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Voter Purges After Shelby

American Politics Research ◽

10.1177/1532673x20916426 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (6) ◽

pp. 687-692

Author(s):

Catalina Feder ◽

Michael G. Miller

Keyword(s):

Supreme Court ◽

Voting Rights ◽

Voting Rights Act ◽

Full Control ◽

Shelby County ◽

First Time ◽

Election Laws ◽

The U.S

In Shelby County v. Holder (570 U.S. 529 (2013)), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “coverage formula” in Section 4b of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) that determined which jurisdictions had to presubmit changes in their election policies for federal approval. This ruling allowed covered counties full control over their election laws for the first time in 40 years. We engage the question of whether counties that had previously been “covered” purged voters at a higher rate than noncovered counties after the coverage formula was struck down. We find increases in purge rate of between 1.5 and 4.5 points in formerly covered jurisdictions post- Shelby, compared with counties that had not been subject to preclearance. Most of the increase came immediately, as the effect in 2014 is substantively and significantly higher than that in 2016. These findings suggest that while counties may have aggressively purged voters in 2014—the first election after the coverage formula’s demise—they may have tempered this behavior thereafter.

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Disenfranchisement and Economic Inequality: Downstream Effects of Shelby County v. Holder

AEA Papers and Proceedings ◽

10.1257/pandp.20191085 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 109 ◽

pp. 161-165

Author(s):

Abhay P. Aneja ◽

Carlos F. Avenancio-León

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Economic Inequality ◽

Voting Rights ◽

Voting Rights Act ◽

Downstream Effects ◽

The Supreme Court ◽

Shelby County ◽

The Government ◽

Public Workers

The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) is considered by many to be the most effective civil rights law ever passed. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down important provisions from the VRA in Shelby County v. Holder. This paper first discusses how the potential weakening of minority political power brought about by Shelby County may have made the government less responsive to minorities' policy demands. Then we proceed to show that the lack of minority power is already producing economic inequality that is reflected in public-sector wages and in private-sector occupations with a high number of public workers.

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