“Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions,” Roberts wrote.For conservative justices on the Supreme Court, times have changed. For liberal justices, the historical tendency to engage in chicanery and erect new barriers has not changed, according to this dissenting opinion by Ruth Bader Ginsberg:
[The] record for the 2006 reauthorization makes abundantly clear [that] second-generation barriers to minority voting rights have emerged in the covered jurisdictions as attempted substitutes for the first-generation barriers that originally triggered preclearance in those jurisdictions.Indeed, the Tea Party insurrection against common decency ushered in a new wave of second-generation voting rights restrictions, such as: Voter ID laws, new restrictions on voter registration, new laws that discriminate against student voters, renewed gerrymandering, the elimination of weekend polling and extended polling hours that have resulted in outrageously long waiting lines of up to 8 hours.
These newly imposed restrictions have only one goal: To target and suppress turnout among minorities, senior citizens, students, and other key constituencies that can sway the outcome of elections.
Even more outrageous than Citizens United, this decision guts one of the most important and effective civil rights laws, according to Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Law, who says:
Minority voters in places with a record of discrimination are now at greater risk of being disenfranchised than they have been in decades. Today's decision is a blow to democracy. Jurisdictions will be able to enact policies which prevent minorities from voting, and the only recourse these citizens will have will be expensive and time-consuming litigation.Perhaps the time is long overdue to take to the streets. Mass demonstrations. Civil disobedience. And a brick thrown through the window of every Republican headquarters in every city and town from coast to coast! Am I angry?
HELL YES!
Partisan emotions aside, methinks it is time for Ginsberg and Scalia to take retirement. They have both served their time.
ReplyDeleteOne with greater distinction than the other for certain.
ReplyDeleteI have very limited faith in revolutions, insurrections and noise in the street particularly for the purpose of restoring democracy. I guess it's because I have so little faith in the human race -- and none at all when it's the ignorant, angry American public. I just don't know how you make an elected government represent the people as a whole when we have failed so miserably in separating power from money. Hell, we've made something like a religion out of it.
Could it be that people are hard-wired not only for tribalism but to seek out the powerful and dedicate ourselves to serve and promote its interests? As I've been saying for a very long time, from feudalism we came and to feudalism we shall go. Instead of dukes and barons, knights and foot soldiers, we have corporations, cartels, lobbyists and the Tea Party. They need to keep the rest of us in debt, disease, ignorance and pregnancy.
I was at a barbecue not long ago and some affluent fellow opined that the original intention of our government was to allow only the landed gentry to participate and so those who don't own land and perhaps those who don't pay taxes should not vote. There's probably some historical truth in it, but there's no future for justice and democracy in it.
I share your cynicism Capt. There is some historical truth as you say with respect to that affluent fellows remarks. To the degree that it is highly desirable the electorate be at least moderately educated and literate, as well as possessing critical thinking skills, his concern have some merit.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunaly we do not have a nation of Jeffetsons and Madisons.