Voting Rights Case Study

It 's the time of the season when the stakes run high. Our democracy is currently under a fierce battle to decide its next leader, supreme court justice, and overall pathway forward. Another item on the docket of democracy is the new voter ID laws. These laws have been strengthening and becoming more widespread over the past decade. North Carolina is but the latest state to adopt this voter ID policy and with the current circumstances, few realize the fierce battle North Carolina is facing.. These new laws, passed laws in 2013, made showing an approved government issued ID mandatory if one wanted to vote this election cycle. In addition they also outlawed same day registration and the ability to vote outside one 's precinct. North Carolina’s passage was just another addition to the ongoing controversy surrounding these voter ID laws. This is an issue that has divided the nation, and now our home state. Critics of the new laws say that the laws disenfranchise potential voters, specifically those of African-American and Hispanic backgrounds. Supporters of the laws have adopted the platform that voting is a privilege and that the new laws are necessary and proper to protect against voter fraud. Whichever side you find yourself on one thing is clear, these new

This document had finally been introduced in 1965 but prior to all that, segregation and racial discrimination continued all throughout. The Voting Rights Act, presented in 1965 and extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982, is commonly measured to be the most effective piece of civil rights by the United States Congress. The act arranges the 15th Amendment’s everlasting assurance that no person shall be disadvantaged of the right to vote even in accordance to race or color.

In the 1869, congress passes the 15th amendment giving African American men the right to vote. Then in 1964 poll taxes where banned when it was adopted into the 24th amendment. Through all of this there were still many minorities left out of the loop, even though these laws and amendments where passed they truly weren’t put into place in individual states for a while. In 1965 many people marched and fought for the civil rights of many people. One of those famous marches was the march of Selma that included the famous MLK Jr. Later that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the ‘Voting Rights Act’ into law. The Voting Rights Act consisted of permanently removing all barriers that detained many minorities from participating in elections and casting their votes by prohibiting racial/ethnic discrimination at all

Many women and African American men had long dreamed to have the right to vote. In many states, they could only vote if their state allowed them the privilege. The dedicated men and women fought for their right to vote in the Civil Rights Movement in the early and mid 1900s. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act to give African Americans the rights to vote. It would have not occurred if the Civil Rights Movement had not taken place. The Nineteenth Amendment would not have occurred either if not for the Civil Rights Movement. The freedom to vote is now held by a majority because of the fight by the people involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and the African Americans and women who fought for their right to

In the 2013 Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder the state of Alabama filed a law suit against the federal government due to the unconstitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits certain districts from enacting new voting laws without the approval of the federal government while Section 4b prohibited them to make changes to voting laws based on race or social status. These laws were enacted due to discrimination and violence minorities were facing during the 1960’s. After the Supreme Court reviewed the case Justice Roberts delivered the concurring opinion in which they ruled the act as unconstitutional with the justification that conditions are not the same as they were in

In 2013 a court case “Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder” that challenged the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision ruled that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was an act that …..was unconstitutional because it was based off of old data and no longer applied to those certain nine states which were Alabama, Texas, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Virginia. (Excerpt from Shelby County, Ala. V. Holder) The Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder was unjust because it abolished Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act which protected minorities from voting discrimination in the South and caused a step back on the path to full equality because those nine states will go back to their ways where they discriminated and hindered African American and minorities from voting because they no longer have the authority of the Voting Rights Act over their heads.

In the article "The Big Lie Behind Voter ID Laws," the editorial board explains how Republican officials and legislators try to pass new voting laws such as requiring photo ID in order to keep eligible voters from voting. They explain how such laws target mainly minorities and poor people. Along with that, there is discussion of a Federal District Judge’s written opinion showing how the law abused the Voting Rights

The decision made by the Supreme Court was unjust. On the contrary to the Court’s decision, the Voting Rights Act is still extremely important and is needed even wider today, the 21st century, to realize the promises of equality in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The Act played a very important role in increasing black voter rates and against voting dilutions during its service. As discrimination is still a common ideology today and still has impact on legislation, without

This proves that those most affected by the changes in DMV close down are blacks. These racial barriers are quoted as being a “blast from the Jim Crow past” (Carasik, 2015, P.3). And does not help to ensure that all United States citizens are given the opportunity to execute their rights to vote.

The impact of voter ID laws is a contentious issue in the presidential election cycle. Though the Voter ID laws have been under the magnifying glass

The Supreme Court also referred to the Voting Rights Act with respect to the outlawing of a durational residential requirement in voting in the presidential and vice-presidential elections. Since all states fall under Federal Law that the state could not use this as a requirement. Since state matters are different though they concluded that anything longer than 30 days would be too long.

The Voting Rights Act is tokenism in that it did not really empower minorities. Although it is true that the act did create some positive impacts on minorities such as increasing the number of minority officials, its positive impact is constantly undermined by efforts from both the Republican party and sometimes from the Supreme Court that aimed at suppressing minorities votes. One example is the Republican’s framing of voter fraud and their attribution of the cause to minorities when voter fraud is almost non-existent. Another example is the decision of Shaw V. Reno (1993), the ruling of which started the application of what’s called the “strict scrutiny” standard that basically gave nod to white majority voting districts by considering any

Conclusively, voter identification makes it hard for people to vote by creating more obstacles to those who are eligible to vote. The comparison between the states show that having these laws have not only discriminated against minority communities but also show that the states have a lower voter turnout compared to other states without the laws. Voter ids and registration regulation however are not the only issues that have effected Americas voter participation and big issue that is circulating around the US is voter restoration and the disenfranchise of previous inmates having their voting right revoked from past offense.

Voter identification laws discriminate against the poor and minorities because of they failed to provide all the elements necessary to obtain a voter ID and their lack of funds “Lawyers suing the state said that blacks and Hispanics disproportionately lacked one of the five forms of approved ID compared with white Texans, and that

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