Arizona sues over key provision of Civil Rights Act

[alp227]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Arizona has become the latest jurisdiction to challenge continuing federal oversight over a key provision of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1965. Officials in Phoenix filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday, saying requirements to preclear all local voting changes with the U.S. Justice Department are unconstitutional.

It follows a Supreme Court ruling two years ago that gave states and local communities more power to appeal the preclearance provision of the law. That section provides continuing federal control over election practices in 16 states, based on past discrimination against minority voters. Other states are not covered by the provision even if they, too, might discriminate against minority voters.

The conservative high court majority ruled the Justice Department was applying the powerful enforcement tool too broadly.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said Washington punishes states with "random enforcement based on the whim of federal authorities."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/25/arizona.civil.rights.a...

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. You don't have to have a random whim

to find discrimination in Arizona. It's standard.

[saras]

2. Enforcement of the law isn't a "whim" but the normal state of things (except for Republicans...)

I'd have no objection to replacing it with systematic, across-the-board, all-states enforcement. It might cost a little, but it would be worth.

[leftyohiolib]

3. cant we bulldoze arizona into that crater and be done with them

[pampango]

4. "Tom Horne Sues to Overthrow Voting Rights Act: What's Next, the De-Abolition of Slavery?"

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2011/08/tom_ho...


Horne, pandering to the nativists, yet again

Arizona has earned itself the moniker of "the most racist state in the nation" for a reason. Not a day goes by that its public officials fail to concoct some new, bigoted outrage as manna for Sand Land's wingnut masses.

The outrage du jour? Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is suing the federal government, seeking to overturn the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the law that essentially enfranchised America's minorities and prevents states from coming up with ways to keep them from the ballot box.

States can "bail out" of their preclearance status by meeting certain requirements. But, significantly, Horne is not attempting to do that. He in fact wants to overturn the portions of the law having to do with preclearance and have them declared unconstitutional.

Horne argues that the standards Arizona must meet are archaic and no longer apply. Golly gee, he seems to be saying, Arizona in 2011 is a veritable model of inclusiveness.

That is, if you ignore Senate Bill 1070, the constant barrage of anti-immigrant laws, the general anti-Latino sentiment, the attack on ethnic studies (authored by Horne, natch), the rise in hate crimes, the race-based murders by minutewomen and assorted hate-filled Anglos, and on and on and on.

Sure, minorities have nothing to worry about in a state run by right-wing Anglo politicians who bank on the exploitation of rampant xenophobia and the fomenting of racial and ethnic discord.

Riiiiight.

[COLGATE4]

5. I don't suppose there's any chance that we could persuade

Mexico to take Arizona (and Texas) back???

[Judi Lynn]

6. On Eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Arizona Sues to Overturn Voting Rights Act

Source: Common Dreams

Published on Friday, August 26, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
On Eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Arizona Sues to Overturn Voting Rights Act
by Jeff Biggers

It took years for Arizona to recover from right-wing Governor Evan Mecham’s disgraceful act to rescind the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in 1989.

Now, on the eve of the unveiling of the national memorial to the civil rights leader in Washington, DC, Attorney General Tom Horne has joined a lone county in Alabama to make Arizona the first state to file a suit against the Obama administration to strike down parts of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 — spurred by the horrific violence encountered by King and civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama — as unconstitutional.

“President Lyndon Johnson’s high spirits were marked as he circulated among the many guests whom he had invited to witness an event he confidently felt to be historic, the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act,” King wrote. “The bill that lay on the polished mahogany desk was born in violence in Selma, Alabama, where a stubborn sheriff … had stumbled against the future.”

Claiming that sections of the Voting Rights Act are “either archaic, not based in fact,” Horne has indeed stumbled against his own future and Arizona’s unfinished history of voting rights violations.

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/26-9

[sakabatou]

7. Someone needs to be hit with a clue-by-four

[SusanaMontana41]

8. Big time. And we continue our backward march. n/t

[ladywnch]

9. not 'march'........SPRINT. n/t

[SusanaMontana41]

10. True dat. nt

[fascisthunter]

14. people have become docile and take their rights for granted

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

11. Tucson - It’s time to leave Arizona behind. BAJA Arizona

http://www.bandersnatch.com/bajaz.htm

[demwing]

12. I suppose this had to happen with Obama as President

It brings out the racism in those who were able to keep it closeted for years.

I have to hope its just the gasp of a dying prejudice, not a primal scream of racist hate.

[Confusious]

13. He's the reason everyone hates lawyers

Along with the American bar association

The Attorney General has openly lied in the past about his history of bankruptcy and has the unique distinction of being banned forever from the Securities and Exchanges Commission after he “willfully aided and abetted” securities law violations.

Why wasn't this guy disbarred?