The Obstructions Of The Voting Rights Movement In The United States

I cannot agree with you more Inez. “It is hard to believe that in 2017 we are still having the discussion as to whether or not every American has equal access to be able to vote.” How is this still an issue?

The Founding Fathers of the United States constitution also created constitutional principles that the United States gov’t and people should abide by. However, if people allow gerrymandering to happen, we as citizens, would be doing a deed that is extremely unconstitutional. According to the constitutional principles stated in the United States Constitution, the United States will always be a country that uses popular sovereignty. According to Dictionary.com, popular sovereignty is. “the doctrine that sovereign power is vested in the people and that those chosen to govern, as trustees of such power, must exercise it in conformity with the general will.” (Dictionary.com, Popular Sovereignty) This means that to decide on problems or large decisions, the majority vote of the people will always rule. However, with gerrymandering, the politicians will be violating the principle of popular sovereignty because they manipulate the districts so even if there are more votes for one party, the other party can win the majority of the districts, therefore winning the state. Another constitutional principle that gerrymandering violates from the US Constitution is the statement that everyone should have their own individual rights. The rights stated are that everyone has their rights to liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness. One of the rights is liberty, meaning that there should be no government interference in people’s lives, their behavior, and their political views. However, when the government does gerrymander, they are interfering with our political views by not allowing our say to be counted

A government for the people, by the people, requires input from all its citizens. The American experiment is a great success that has inspired others to defend the voices of all its citizens. Yet, this was not always so. In the early years of our great democratic experiment we had reserved those unalienable rights to a select few. We discriminated based on race, gender, and color. Therefore, reformers began calling for changes. The reform movements of 1825-1855 in the U.S helped further develop democratic ideals by creating a new range of voters that were more educated, diverse, and healthy. It accomplished this by advocating towards women's suffrage, abolition, which would lead to African-American suffrage, progression towards a better educational

“How Democratic Is the American Consitution?” written by Robert A. Dahl is a novel that’s main purpose is to “suggest changes in the way we think about our constitution” (Dahl 2003, p.1). Robert A. Dahl revolves his book around a few questions. However, the main focus of all the questions are “why should we Americans uphold our constitution” (Dahl 2003, p.1)? This question is asked because he questions why we uphold something that was written more than two centuries ago. He also questions how democratic our society is because of our constitution. Dahl examines the fact that some Americans have no problem with the constitution as it is today and then he also states that some find it to lack in some crucial areas. Dahl explains that there are seven crucial areas in which the constitution lacks democracy. These include: slavery, suffrage, election of the president, choosing senators, equal representation in the Senate, Judicial power, and Congressional power.

During the course of the past few decades, the United States of America faced hundreds of issues that impact the nation’s view of leadership. Some people of the United States believe that the issues that face America involves those in office, while others believe that the issue is structural. In the case of America today, there is a momentous structural difficulty in our voting system. Furthermore, the most distinct problem that the United States handles today is gerrymandering. Throughout this essay, it will be made clear that gerrymandering is the leading problem facing America today because it harms the equality of citizens.

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

Throughout America’s history the franchise has been withheld from different groups. This has been possible due to weakly written laws that do not provide adequate protections. In 1965 PL 89-110 was passed, this law, commonly known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, finally provided real protections for minorities living in southern states. In recent years the language of the law was modified within the Supreme Court to take away the law’s primary power. In the following mock Congressional testimony we will go back to 1848, 13 years before the American Civil War, and provide evidence of why a law like PL 89-110 is necessary and commendable.

In American politics today, many practices exist that greatly harm the American public. One of these dangerous practices, known as gerrymandering, occurs in nearly every state. While some claim that the practice helps America, in reality gerrymandering harms American democracy and safety. Gerrymandering greatly affects society, and must become illegal to insure fair representation, the democratic processes in America continues, and America continues to thrive.

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)

The Jacksonian Era was often described as a time of “democratization of politics” in the United States. However, democracy, at this time, was only defined as equality and justice for white males. There were improvements that benefited the common people, such as universal male suffrage, but these excluded women, Africans, Indians, and the rest of the population in the country. In addition, Andrew Jackson was not very democratic as he violated the Constitution and used the authority of the government for his personal issues. Meanwhile, today’s American society is a true democracy because every citizen, despite sex and race, is protected and given equal rights and opportunities. Back then, the United States did not achieve true democratization because there was not equality among all the people and Andrew Jackson abused his power as president.

Throughout the years many Americans have faced what is known as voter suppression. When researching voter suppression you will find that it is defined as a strategy to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing those with voting rights from voting. I interpret that the causes of voter suppression derives from that of equality issues or a misconception of government. However, history recorded the effects of voter suppression which leads to major violence, rebellion, strikes, or in some cases fear. The jarring act of voter suppression began early as 1776 when white men owning property were allowed to vote denying Jews, Catholics, and others their voting rights.

The voting rights act of 1965 was designed to prohibit discrimination based on race, and requires certain jurisdictions to prove bilingual assistance to language minority voters. The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the nonwhite population had not registered to vote. Still voting rights gave African American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among blacks increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969. When the law was first passed, they made the blacks take a test to be able to vote. (history.com). Since 1965 the voting rights act has protected

Historically in America, voting has been a relatively discriminatory practice. It has limited and deprived many individuals of many diverse races, ethnicities, and walks of life from casting their votes to select the individual who they feel is most educated, and skilled to represent their interests. Not only has this been proven to be wrong by discriminating minority groups in voting, it also has proved to be a process, which minimizes the largest growing demographics in the country. Furthermore, with millennials growing to become more politically active, minority groups are becoming more politically involved than ever. Taking this into account an important question that is raised by the author William Eskridge in his book “Legislation and Statutory Interpretation” is “Would minorities be better off with more representatives who had to pay attention to their interests because they are a powerful and organized constituency, rather than with a few representatives of minority districts who specialize in protecting only their interests?” (Eskridge,Frickley,& Garrett, 2006, pp.55).

American politics has proved to be flawed in structure over, and over again. Although our founding fathers had the best intentions when they implemented democracy, they like most modern day politicians, failed to actually make things better. Yes we gained our Independence, but with the ability to make our own choices we tend to make childish and impulsive decisions. The election of Donald Trump stands to be the most recent of those mistakes, and the politicians who work for him are either blinded or full of regret. Poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Robert Lowell paint vivid pictures of these very mistakes that seem to recur with the thought of democracy.

It has been 52 years since the 1965 Voting Rights Act was put into action, less than a lifetime, and yet it has been easy for the American population to look away from policy changes and ramifications within the Act. Many people today, believe that everyone has the ability to vote if they are a citizen 18 or over, but this has not been the case ever, even in today’s “modern” society. Still, there is a difference between voter restriction laws before 1965, and policies in 2017. It seems as America advances into the future, these racist policies and laws have become more subtle, gerrymandering and voter id policies have become the new literacy tests that prevent black and marginalized voters from voting in recent elections. Another issue that has transpired recently is the 2013 Shelby County V. Holder, which has lifted government involvement within the Southern States, giving them the power to change voting laws as they see fit.