Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act

Nearly 100 years after the 15th amendment was ratified, vast disparities and blatant discrimination in voting process and practice were still pervasive, particularly in certain southern states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) was enacted by congress to address this enduring inequity. Section 5 of the VRA requires that states meeting criteria set out in section 4(b) of the act, must obtain federal “preclearance” before enacting any laws that affect voting. Section 4(b) provides the conditions for the preclearance requirement as state or jurisdictions where less than 50% of minorities were registered to vote in 1964.

The relevant section of the law had, for nearly 50 years, required state and local governments with a history of discriminatory voter suppression practices to obtain “pre-clearance” from the federal government before making any changes to their voting laws.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting discrimination. With the condition to receive preclearance stated in section 5 of the Act from the Department of Justice before making any changes affecting the voting process, also came four other prohibitions. The prohibition of literacy test or other similar test or devices as a prerequisite to voter registration is one prevention. The requirement of jurisdictions with significant language minority populations to provide non-English ballots and oral voting instructions is another. Third is the prohibition of vote dilution, which is the remapping of districts to suppress the minority vote. The final provision was one of the most controversial of the Act. It established the federal oversight

The Supreme Court held that Section 4(b) did indeed exceed Congress’s power to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments and that the coverage formula conflicts with the principles of federalism and there is no longer disparate treatment or any signs of voter discrimination and that when section 4(b) was enacted it was based on events that happened over 40 years ago. The Supreme Court concluded that Congress cannot force states to be under preclearance based upon their past discrimination, especially since Section 4(b) hadn’t been renewed or had any modifications made to it since 1975. The Courts stated that “The Amendment is not designed to punish for the past, its purpose is to ensure a better future” . The majority opinion in the case was that

This confirms that discrimination of any kind concerning race does undeniably violate the fifteenth amendment. Today, the questions still arise about whether voting rules do contradict with the fifteenth amendment. Voter ID laws, which are supposed to protect us against voter fraud and secure the voting system, have been questioned whether they can be discriminative. Minorities can have more trouble finding important documents to prove their identity, which could be considered a barrier to voting which potentially violates the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the fifteenth amendment. All of the twenty-seven amendments are important fundamental principles in our country, the fifteenth amendment, in particular, allows anyone to vote and does not discourage people to vote because of the color of their

My research topic is the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and I chose this topic because I always found it amusing that it took so long for African Americans to legally be allowed to vote. I also thought this topic was appropriate since we now have an African American president, and the African Americans citizens need to know that voting I important because we didn’t always have that right.

Vera Blum continued to bring cases to court and in 2013 Blum brought the case Shelby County V. Holder. This case was centered around The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and officially questioned if “the renewal of Section 5 of The Voting Rights Act under the constraints of 4(b) exceed Congress’ authority under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and therefore Tenth Amendment and Article Four of the Constitution” (“Shelby County V. Holder”). While this is quite likely easily understood by one who is familiar with the law, the vast majority are not so intimately acquainted with the Constitution. Therefore, to grasp the very essence of this case requires a great deal of unpacking. Upon unpacking the question it becomes easy to divide the question into two distinct parts; what Blum’s team is seeking to abolish and his explanation as to why. The purpose of this paper simply requires an understanding of the former and allows us to focus on the important and manageable two, as opposed to the overwhelming six. The question brought by Shelby County starts with “Does the renewal of Section 5 of The Voting Rights Act under the constraints of 4(b) exceed Congress’ authority” this reveals the intent to either combat the renewal of Section 5 or to remove “the constraints” put in place by Section 4(b) (“Shelby County V. Holder”). To challenge Section 5 is to challenge the section of The Voting Rights Act that prohibits a very specific list of areas from changing their voting

What is The Voting Rights Act of 1966? The voting rights act is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law on august 6, 1965. This law was designed to enforce the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, the act secure voting rights for ethic groups mostly in the south. The U.S Department of Justice expresses that this Act is the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country. The Act contains various provisions that control election administration. The Act’s “general provision” provides nationwide protection on voting rights. Section 2 is a general Provision that forbids each state and local government

Most change can be caused by people or something with significant value. Occasionally people forget that change can also be caused by pieces of paper. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a law passed that primarily gave African Americans the right to vote without having to take any sort of literacy tests. African Americans were widely ignored in voting rights because they were forced to take literacy tests to be eligible to vote. Having this event in our nation’s civil rights movement was a landmark that allowed the other half of our nation’s voice to be heard. “The Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever passed by Congress.”(Laney 65)

Soon after passage of the Voting Rights Act, federal examiners were conducting voter registration, and black voter registration began a sharp increase. The cumulative effect of the Supreme Court’s decisions, Congress’ enactment of voting rights legislation, and the ongoing efforts of concerned private citizens and the Department of Justice, has been to restore the right to vote guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever passed by

The second act passed by the government was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Acts was passed by the Senate on May 26th, by the U.S House of Representatives on July 9th, and finally signed into law on August 6, 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson. What brought the act about was the amount of violence that had taken place in the United States over African Americans protesting for their basic rights as humans. “One event occurred on March 7, 1965, when peaceful participants in a voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery were met by Alabama state troopers who attacked them with nightsticks, tear gas and whips after they refused to turn back. Some protesters were severely beaten, and others ran for

After the Civil War, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendment were added to our constitution in order to protect the civil rights of Americans. The thirteenth amendment ended slavery. The fourteenth tells us that all persons born here are natural citizens, as well as states the rights and protection of both citizens and non-citizens under the law. The fifteenth amendment protects a citizen’s right to vote. These were reinforced by the civil rights acts between 1865 and 1875. These acts allowed the President to enforce these acts with armed forces, criminal penalties to those who would interfere with the right to vote or any of these other rights, and penalties to those who would deny equal enjoyment to public accommodations. Unfortunately, many civil rights court cases, and barriers were put in place to undermine the legislation these amendments and acts were meant to create and the rights they were made to protect. This changed in 1954 when Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka stated that segregation of schools violates the equal protection act of the fourteenth amendment. This eventually led to several other civil rights movements during the 1950s and 60s. By this time, Congress was finally compelled to pass legislation to support the civil rights movement. This included the Civil rights act of 1964, which banned discrimination on the bases of color, race, religion, gender, and national origin. The Voting act of 1965, which outlawed tests discriminatory tests

Thus, when faced with arbitrary legislative action or inaction, judicial intervention “is not only appropriate but essential” to protect citizens’ constitutional rights. Furthermore, when the Court resolves constitutional questions that, for whatever reasons, elected representatives, cannot, its rulings can guide lower courts, legislators, and citizens concerning the scope of individual rights and permissibility of governmental conduct. When the Court applies the standing doctrine regardless of legislative inertia or entrenchment, some citizens are left with rights but no remedies and a government that is unaccountable and unresponsive to its citizens.

On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court made its final decision on the Shelby County, Alabama v Holder, deeming Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, passed by Congress in 1965 and extended several times, unconstitutional. Section 5, although not being struck down, became insignificant without its triggering formula, Section 4, to determine the coverage. This Supreme Court decision took away the key parts of the Voting Rights Act, which was an important method for the federal government to oversee and enforce the enfranchisement of African-Americans in some states. While justifying their decision, the Court mentioned that Section 4 only applied to specific states and it was against the idea of equal sovereignty of all states in the Constitution. What is more, the Congress’ justification of these unequal actions towards those states in 2006, was based on 40-year old data showing that it was still an exceptional condition, which cannot reflect the current situations and needs of the country.

One of the first changes in voting rights began with issuing literacy tests to limited individuals in hopes to earn a chance to vote. Specifically, the 1965 Alabama Literacy Test was given to African Americans before they were declared eligible to vote. This practice was intended to keep African Americans from having any input when it came to voting. The idea of this literacy test was to give African Americans the chance to earn the right to vote but, would not guarantee that right. The 1965 Alabama Literacy Test was part of voter discrimination by only requiring a certain group of individuals participate in taking it. The 1965 Alabama Literacy Test was intended to be challenging to