Jewish Organizations Criticize SCOTUS Ruling on Voting Rights Act

Lena Salzbank — June 26, 2013 – 2:03 pm | Civil Rights Comments (0) Add a comment

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, creating a milestone piece of national legislation that prohibited anyone from denying the right to vote to any individual.

With a 5-to-4 ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court’s decision deemed critical pieces of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. There will no longer be a law requiring certain states to receive clearance from the Federal government before making any changes to voting laws, even if they were a state with a history of discrimination. Jewish organizations across the country were among the first to criticize the Courts decision.

The three Jewish Justices on the court, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer, were all members of the minority opinion supporting the Voting Rights Act. The battle to uphold and defend the Voting Rights Act in part stems from the the Jewish Community’s participation in the Civil Rights Movement.

Former Civil Rights Leader Representative John Lewis said:

“Today, the Supreme Court stuck a dagger into the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most effective pieces of legislation congress has passed in the last 50 years.

These men never stood in unmovable lines. They were never denied the right to participate in the democratic process. They were never beaten, jailed, run off their farms or fired from their jobs. No one they knew died simply trying to register to vote. They are not the victims of gerrymandering or contemporary unjust schemes to maneuver them out of their constitutional right.

I disagree with the court that the history of discrimination is somehow irrelevant today. The record clearly demonstrates numerous attempts to impede voting rights still exist, and it does not matter that those attempts are not as “pervasive, widespread or rampant” as they were in 1965. One instance of discrimination is too much in a democracy.”

A few of the groups to speak out against the decision made Tuesday night, were The Anti Defamation League, The National Council of Jewish Women, The Jewish Council of Public Affairs, Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism and the American Jewish Committee.

The Anti-Defamation League said:

“This decision is profoundly disappointing and is a major setback to the progress we have made in civil rights.  For almost 50 years, the Voting Rights Act has protected minority voters, helping to ensure that everyone, no matter their race, ethnicity, or national origin, can exercise their constitutional right to vote.  This ruling threatens much of the progress that has been made.”

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs said:

“Preservation of the VRA remains essential to our national progress toward a more perfect union. Unfortunately, the decision handed down today undermines the Federal government’s best tool to ensure this progress. We are up to the challenge implicit in this ruling. Congress needs to act to remove the obstacles to the ballot so that no American is denied the right to vote.”

The American Jewish Committee said:

“The pre-clearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act have been an important bulwark against discrimination in the exercise of the right to vote in jurisdictions with long, sordid and intolerable records of racism in affording access to that right.”

The National Council of Jewish Women said:

“When congress voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006, it did so based on an extensive record of ongoing attempts to disenfranchise minority voters. The court’s majority today disregarded that record when it overturned a key VRA provision that prevented such abuse. The provision set up a formula that governed which states needed preclearance of voting changes by the Justice Department before the affected elections were held.”

 

 

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