Shelby County loses its challenge against Voting Rights Act
The Birmingham News reports: The section of the Voting Rights Act that requires the federal government to scrutinize election procedures in all or part of 16 states, including Alabama, was upheld by a 2-1 decision released today by a federal appeals court in Washington D.C.
Shelby County had challenged Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act as an outdated burden on local governments that are no longer a threat to rights of minority voters. But in the 63-page opinion, the two judges of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia said Congress acted properly when it renewed the historic voting rights law in 2006.
"But Congress drew reasonable conclusions from the extensive evidence it gathered and acted pursuant to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which entrust Congress with ensuring that the right to vote--surely among the most important guarantees of political liberty in the Constitution--is not abridged on account of race. In this context, we owe much deference to the considered judgment of the people's elected representatives," according to the opinion. -- Read the whole story --> Shelby County loses appeal; Voting Rights Act is upheld by federal court | al.com
The decision is available at the Lawyers' Committee site.