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Voting Rights Act faces a near-death experience at US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority aims to impose stricter standards on proving racial discrimination in voting maps, potentially affecting up to 19 districts nationwide, voting rights groups said.
- On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court heard a Louisiana redistricting case as conservative justices signaled they could undercut Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, with a ruling expected in the coming months.
- Louisiana's Republican-led legislature added a second Black-majority district after a judge ruled its earlier map likely harmed Black voters, prompting a group of white voters to sue and challenge the six US House districts.
- The Justice Department lawyer Hashim Mooppan argued that 'under the Constitution, the problem is not the mere consideration of race in districting', suggesting a framework that could make Section 2 cases nearly impossible to win.
- Two voting rights groups warned that eliminating Section 2 could let Republicans redraw up to 19 districts in the 435-seat House, benefiting their narrow majority perhaps as soon as next year.
- The Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965, was sought by Martin Luther King and signed by President Lyndon Johnson, while Congress strengthened Section 2 with a 'results test' in 1982 and the Supreme Court weakened the law in the 2013 Shelby County decision.
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Supreme Court reconsiders Voting Rights Act amid partisan controversy
Six decades ago, it was evident that the promises of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would be difficult if not impossible to deliver without passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The VRA put some teeth in the…
·Cherokee County, United States
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Voting Rights Act Faces a Near-Death Experience at US Supreme Court
·New York, United States
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Voting Rights Act faces a near-death experience at US Supreme Court
The conservative justices signaled they could undercut the law's Section 2, which bars voting maps that would result in diluting the voting power of minorities, even without direct proof of racist intent.
·United Kingdom
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Total News Sources8
Leaning Left4Leaning Right0Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Left, 50% Center
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left, 50% of the sources are Center
50% Center
L 50%
C 50%
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