16 The new law also shortened the early voting period, restricted same-day voter registration, eliminated provisional ballots for those turning up at the wrong precinct on Election Day, terminated preregistration for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds, and rescinded the automatic restoration of voting rights for individuals convicted of felonies upon the completion of their criminal sentences. 15 The legislature had not previously considered a voter identification requirement necessary, but blacks had turned out to vote at higher rates than whites did in 20, with Barack Obama on the ballot, and Latino and college student turnout had also increased. Holder, 14 they enacted a law imposing a strict voter identification requirement that excluded public-university student identification cards and public-employee identification cards. Seven weeks after the Court’s 2013 ruling on the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. ![]() North Carolina Republicans apparently did not receive the Chief Justice’s memo either. 12 Republican Governor Rick Perry signed the bill, declaring: “This is what democracy is really all about.” 13 11 By contrast, the Democratic caucus in that legislature included eleven Caucasians, seventeen African Americans, thirty-two Latino Americans, and two Asian Americans. 10 Of the 120 Republicans in that Texas legislature, all but six were white. 9 Indeed, the investigation had failed to reveal a single instance of voter impersonation fraud. 8įurther, the Texas law did not require identification to submit an absentee ballot, a voting option used more frequently by Republicans than by Democrats, even though the State Attorney General’s investigation of voter fraud found that absentee-ballot fraud was much more prevalent than voter impersonation fraud. ![]() 7 Moreover, nearly a third of the state’s counties, including some with large populations of people of color, did not have motor vehicle offices, which provide driver’s licenses, the most common form of voter identification. 6 Hundreds of thousands of registered Texas voters did not possess valid forms of voter identification under the law, including disproportionate numbers of African Americans and Latino Americans. 5 The list of approved forms of identification included those more commonly possessed by Republican-leaning voters, such as a concealed handgun permit, but not those more commonly possessed by Democratic-leaning voters, such as college identification cards. Texas Republicans apparently did not receive Chief Justice Roberts’s memo announcing how much “our country has changed.” Just hours after the decision, Texas implemented a law, enacted two years earlier but blocked by preclearance, that required government-issued photo identification to vote. 2 Announcing that “history did not end in 1965” 3 and that “ur country has changed,” Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the conservative majority of the Court, ruled that the geographic coverage formula contained in section 4(b) and used to identify jurisdictions subject to section 5 was outdated and could no longer be constitutionally justified. 1 Under that provision, most states of the former Confederacy had been required to “preclear” changes to their voting laws and practices with a federal court in Washington, D.C., or with the Department of Justice to ensure those changes did not deny or abridge the right to vote on the basis of race. The 8th Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment does not prohibit states from using a sedative in lethal injection protocols that has been linked to botched executions.On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated the geographic coverage formula of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, effectively abrogating the preclearance requirement in section 5 of the Act. Closely held corporations with religious objections can be exempt from a federal law requiring employers to include free coverage of contraceptives in health insurance policies. ![]() Human rights activists and others cannot challenge a law that helps the government intercept international communications because they can't show they were injured.īurwell v. Americans' right under the Second Amendment to keep guns at home for self-defense applies to states as well as the federal government.Ĭlapper v. Congress changed the law in 2008, and President Obama signed it upon taking office in 2009. Lilly Ledbetter's lawsuit alleging pay discrimination against women was thrown out because it was not filed within 180 days. We take a deeper look at Alito's 10 years on the bench here: Here's a sampling of some of Justice Samuel Alito's opinions in cases where the Supreme Court was split 5 to 4.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |