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Once again, a court ruling has dealt a blow to one of the most crucial laws in modern American history. A divided appeals court panel in Missouri has further weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the latest in a string of rulings that have undermined the landmark law and its ever-critical mission of ensuring equal access to the ballot box.
For decades, the Voting Rights Act (VRA) has helped ease the grip of segregation and racial discrimination in U.S. elections. But the judicial branch continues to weaken the Voting Rights Act, and most congressional Republicans haven’t shown much concern about these court rulings.
This stands in stark contrast to 2006, when a VRA reauthorization sailed through Congress with bipartisan support and was signed by Republican President George W. Bush.
“In four decades since the Voting Rights Act was first passed, we’ve made progress toward equality, yet the work for a more perfect union is never ending,” Bush said at the time. “We’ll continue to build on the legal equality won by the civil rights movement to help ensure that every person enjoys the opportunity that this great land of liberty offers.”
Somewhere along the way, it seems that his party lost touch with the message about progress toward equality being never ending. There has been scant interest from congressional Republicans, save notable exceptions like Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to respond to the concerning court rulings and shore up the VRA.
This needs to change. And we continue to hope that Sen. Susan Collins, as she often does on issues that require bipartisan bridge building, can play a meaningful role in this change. Collins was one of the 98 senators who supported the VRA reauthorization in 2006.
Democrats must focus on safeguarding voting rights, not a wish-list of their preferred voting and ethics changes, and shelve over-the-top rhetoric. And Republicans must rediscover their past support for a fully-functioning VRA.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section IV of the VRA that set a formula requiring certain states with a history of voter discrimination to get pre-clearance from the federal government before making changes to their election laws. A wave of restrictive state voting laws and suppressive redistricting efforts quickly followed this ruling. Those efforts can still be challenged in court after the fact using Section II of the VRA, but even that avenue is being weakened by the courts.
Last month, an appeals court panel ruled that Section II of the VRA only applies to the federal government, not private groups or individuals. This significantly restricts the ability to bring a lawsuit under the VRA. For now, the ruling only applies to the seven states in the appeals court’s jurisdiction. But it is part of a larger trend weakening this critical law. These rulings and others have limited the scope, effectiveness and accessibility of longstanding VRA protections — and require action from Congress.
We’ve noticed an unfortunate notion in conservative politics and jurisprudence basically holding that the VRA did its job and is no longer needed — at least not in the same ways. At best, this is flawed logic, and at worst it’s an excuse for inaction. America’s voting systems and procedures didn’t become less racist because everybody decided one day to be nicer to each other. It happened because the power of the law, this law in particular, made it so. When you allow a key tool of ensuring equality to wither bit by bit, that allows equality to wither with it. This should be unacceptable to everyone, regardless of party affiliation or ideology.
We go back to something the late Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon, said in 2015 while marking the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday March in Selma. That march, and the efforts from Lewis and others, helped galvanize passage of the Voting Rights Act.
“We must use this moment to recommit ourselves to do all we can to finish the work,” Lewis said in 2015. “There is still work left to be done. Get out there and push and pull until we redeem the soul of America.”
Collins was with Lewis in Selma in 2015, as she discussed in a press release on Wednesday. She and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have successfully, and admirably, included a proposal to create a “John Lewis Civil Rights Fellowship” in a yearly defense authorization bill.
“In 2015, I was honored to be among those who joined him in Selma to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday March that he led,” Collins said in the press release. “By supporting the study of nonviolent civil rights movements around the world, this new fellowship would honor and carry forward his legacy.”
Congress can honor and carry forward his legacy, first and foremost, by continuing his work. That surely includes work to make sure the Voting Rights Act is not continually whittled away into a hollow version of itself, and ensuring the protections that have improved minority ballot access for decades continue to do so.
It is meaningful and critical to study the legacy of John Lewis and other civil rights leaders. But that is not enough. We must also protect that legacy for generations to come.
We’re not asking Republicans to buy into a liberal wish list of new voting procedures. We are asking them to reaffirm past support for decades of voting protections. We’re asking them to listen to the words of John Lewis and George W. Bush when they both spoke about work left unfinished. Of the work left undone, reauthorizing and restrengthening the Voting Rights Act remains front and center.
This is work that all Americans regardless of party, must take up. We owe it to John Lewis and everyone who marched with him in Selma, just as we owe it to each other.
