Lawmakers move to restore Voting Rights Act

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/texas/article/Lawmakers-move-to-restore-Voting-Rights-Act-5149677.php

Lawmakers move to restore Voting Rights Act
By HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press : January 16, 2014 : Updated: January 16, 2014 9:09pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four states — Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — would again have to get approval from the Justice Department before making any changes in the way they hold elections under a bipartisan bill introduced Thursday to restore parts of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional.

Supporters said the bill would modernize and improve the 1965 civil rights legislation by updating a formula used to require certain states with a history of discrimination to get federal approval before changing election laws and practices.

The Supreme Court ruled last June that the existing formula that had become the government's primary tool in enforcing the law relied on four-decade-old data that didn't reflect racial progress and other changes in society.

"What we were facing was both a constitutional as well as a political challenge," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who helped write the bill along with Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "I think we have threaded that needle."

[Gothmog]

1. I love the fact that Texas would be subject to pre-clearance under this fix

Under the new criteria for Section 4, Texas would be one of the states that would be subject to pre-clearance. Texas needs to be subject to review by the Federal government.