voting rights

DeSantis's War on "Woke" Evokes Darkest Parts of Florida's History

by Carol Anderson

Calling DeSantis's agenda a "culture war" obscures the fact that is in fact a war against the marginalized, an effort to narrow the definition of who counts as a Floridian and whom the state will serve and protect, with the right to vote at the center. 

Mississippi AG: We Purged "Taint" of Racism from Felon Disenfranchisement Law in 1968

Attorney General Janet Fitch insisted that the Supreme Court had no cause to review the state's law disenfranchising certain felons. She acknowledged the explicit racist intent embedded in the statute but insisted that "taint" had been removed. 

While Decrying Election Denialists, Congress Can't Ignore the Need to Protect the Voting Rights Act

by Gregory T. Moore

The best way for a bipartsian coalition of lawmakers to demonstrate more than lip service to the values of democracy is to pass the Electoral Count Reform Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. 

DeSantis v. Trump: More Polish, Less Bombast, Same Threat to Democracy?

by Annika Brockschmidt

Conservatives appear eager to boost Ron DeSantis as a "normal" conservative without Trump's "big lie" baggage. Yet his political career is a monument to the pursuit of minority rule, from gerrymandering to voting rights. 

New Documentary uses Fight for Black Power in Lowndes County, Alabama as Lens on Present

Vann Newkirk, whose work inspired "Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power" examines how a conservative white minority fought to keep power even after the passage of the Voting Rights Act

Arizona Court: Armed Poll Watchers are Engaged in Free Speech, Not Voter Intimidation

by Rick Hasen

Standing around a ballot drop box wearing tactical gear and carrying a semiautomatic weapon is clearly an act of voter intimidation, says a leading scholar of voting rights. 

Florida's Arrests of Voters with Felony Convictions Echoes Post-Reconstruction Era

Felon disenfranchisement dates back to Florida's first constitution in 1838; after Florida's voters approved a constitutional amendment, Governor Ron DeSantis's administration has instituted loopholes to prevent people from exercising that right and making public arrests that are likely to make many convicted Floridians think better of trying. 

The Democrats Haven't Learned the Lessons of the Nation's First Voting Rights Act

by Ed Burmila

Beginning with the failure of the Lodge Act in 1890, parties have treated voting rights as just one of many policy priorities competing for space on the agenda and scarce political capital, instead of a basic precondition of functioning democracy. Democrats today are repeating this mistake. 

Southern Republicans Want to Narrow the Census Definition of Black Identity – Why?

In a case that involves both the history of voting rights and exclusion and changes in the Census's recognition of complex ethnic identities since 1980, the Supreme Court may reverse a longstanding assumption about which voters are properly understood to be Black. 

Justice Jackson's Questioning in Voting Rights Case Shows History Won't be Left to Court's Right Wing

The new Associate Justice pushed back against the idea that the writers of the 14th Amendment intended for it to ensure "color-blind" treatment of voters rather than an affirmative defense of racially inclusive political participation. 

Court Upholds Mississippi's 1890 Jim Crow Voting Law

The framers of the state's voting laws were explicit in their intention to use the law to strip as many Black men of their right to vote as possible. A federal court recently ruled that the law, amended with nominally color-blind language, is acceptable. 

3 Law Profs: Connecting Abortion and Voting Rights at SCOTUS

by Leah Litman, Melissa Murray and Kate Shaw

The Supreme Court has turned reproductive freedom over to state elected officials who are increasingly unaccountable to the public because of the Court's decisions eviscerating the Voting Rights Act. 

Will the Dems Use 14th Amendment to Punish States for Voting Rights Crackdowns?

Congress is entitled under the Amendment to strip states of representation if they don't maintain a republican form of government. Do proposed voting rights restrictions and other red-state legislation qualify? 

An Attack on Voting Rights is an Attack on the Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer

by Keisha N. Blain

No one who learns the life story of Fannie Lou Hamer and the sacrifices she made for the right to vote can accept the current attacks on the Voting Rights Act. 

Giving up on Voting Rights Legislation Would be Unconscionable

by E.J. Dionne

Democratic politicians and their allies must commit to fighting for voting rights and stronger safeguards to the electoral process despite the crushing defeat in the effort to reform the filibuster.

The Filibuster Protects the Powerful, Not Vulnerable Minorities

by Ben Railton

The regular use of the filibuster in the 20th century paralleled its use as a tool to frustrate the political goals of labor and civil rights activists.

Now or Never to Stop US Descent to Authoritarian Rule

by Thomas Zimmer

The Republican Party has operated on the core propositions that the Democratic opposition and its core constituencies are fundamentally illegitimate long before Donald Trump. Biden's victory shouldn't obscure how close they are to establishing permanent minority rule. 

Of Course the Federal Government Can Regulate Elections

by Heather Cox Richardson

The Constitution not only enables, but requires the federal government to act when state authority violates the principles of democracy, something President Harry Truman realized in 1946.

Manchin and Sinema are Fulfilling John Roberts's Vision

by Ronald Brownstein

"Roberts, who served as a young clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist and as a Justice Department assistant in the Reagan administration, has long expressed hostility to federal oversight of voting and election rules."

NC GOP Carrying on Tradition of Muting the Black Vote

North Carolina's gerrymandered legislative and Congressional district maps were drawn without consideration to race, say state Republicans. But it's difficult to miss the parallel between the 1890s and today: a conservative bloc of white voters subverting the will of Black and progressive coalition, say James Leloudis and Robert Korstad.