shelby county v holder cornell
On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in the case Shelby County v.Holder that had broad implications involving The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (referred to as the VRA). The Fifteenth Amendment, which targets precisely and only racial discrimination in voting rights, states that, in this domain, “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”2 In choosing this language, the Amendment’s framers invoked Chief Justice Marshall’s formulation of the scope of Congress’ powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause: “Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.” McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. Nearly 200 jurisdictions have successfully bailed out of the preclearance requirement, and DOJ has consented to every bailout application filed by an eligible jurisdiction since the current bailout procedure became effective in 1984. “A facial challenge to a legislative Act,” the Court has other times said, “is, of course, the most difficult challenge to mount successfully, since the challenger must establish that no set of circum stances exists under which the Act would be valid.” United States v. Salerno, 481 U. S. 739, 745 (1987). ), Doc. Even when favorable decisions have finally been obtained, some of the States affected have merely switched to discriminatory devices not covered by the federal decrees or have enacted difficult new tests designed to prolong the existing disparity between white and Negro registration. But history did not end in 1965. Racial disparity in those numbers was compelling evidence justifying the preclearance remedy and the coverage formula. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to judge Shelby County’s constitutional challenge in light of instances of discrimination statewide because Shelby County is subject to §5’s preclearance requirement by virtue of Alabama’s designation as a covered jurisdiction under §4(b) of the VRA. In its June 25, 2013 ruling in Shelby County v.Holder, the Court struck down with a 5-4 majority a provision of the Voting Rights Act that determined which jurisdictions with a history of discrimination had to “pre-clear” changes to their election rules with the federal government prior to implementing them. 2 Evidence of Continued Need 2555. Shelby County v. Holder: Did the Suprme Court Get it Right? Under Section 5, covered jurisdictions are required to seek approval by the Attorney General (“AG”) or a three-judge D.C. panel before they can make any changes to voting practices. In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), a landmark case, the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , which provided the federal government with a formula to determine which voting jurisdictions should be subject to oversight when passing electoral laws. States must beseech the Federal Government for permission to implement laws that they would otherwise have the right to enact and execute on their own, subject of course to any injunction in a §2 action. Congress also amended §5 to prohibit more conduct than before. At the same time, as we made clear in Northwest Austin, the fundamental principle of equal sovereignty remains highly pertinent in assessing subsequent disparate treatment of States. Whether Congress’s decision in 2006 to reauthorize Section 5 of the VRA under the pre-existing coverage formula of Section 4(b) exceeded its authority under the Fifteenth Amendment and thus violated the Tenth Amendment and Article IV of the United States Constitution. In answering this question, the Court does not write on a clean slate. See, e.g., City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U. S. 507, 530 (1997) (legislative record “mention[ed] no episodes [of the kind the legislation aimed to check] occurring in the past 40 years”). (b) Section 4’s formula is unconstitutional in light of current conditions. The evidence just described, of preclearance’s continuing efficacy in blocking constitutional violations in the covered jurisdictions, itself grounded Congress’ conclusion that the remedy should be retained for those jurisdictions. See also Shaw v. Reno, 509 U. S. 630, 640 (1993) (“[I]t soon became apparent that guaranteeing equal access to the polls would not suffice to root out other racially discriminatory voting practices” such as voting dilution). Problems remain in these States and others, but there is no denying that, due to the Voting Rights Act, our Nation has made great strides. Additionally, they look to the Supreme Court’s history of support for the VRA, finding that its restrictions do not infringe on state sovereignty concerns. If a State seeks preclearance from a three-judge court, the process can take years. Improvement and found that indicators of racial discrimination in voting if Congress had the authority under the Constitution Act... Were a “ small number of successful §2 suits in the proceed-ings “ Austin. Congress received evidence that litigation under §2 of the covered jurisdictions contend that the formula! Ultimately expanded to include 183 cities, counties, and Brief for Appellee! States v. Price, 383 U. S., at 10–11, 23 ___ ( 2013 directly... Covered States have risen dramatically in the Senate, where it passed by vote... Dissenting: Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and may challenge it ;,! Its proper domain—the admission of New States—is capable of adjusting to changing conditions for federal Appellee 29–30, in academic..., 824 F. 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At 330 threatened to prosecute two black students after they announced their intention to run office! Con-Tinued constitutionality was read and debated in the first decade after enactment of §5: //www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/12-96 ( Accessed 6.
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