Act remains constitutional, for now
Posted: Monday, June 22, 2009 1:41 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Courts
From NBC's Pete Williams
The U.S. Supreme Court today stepped up to the edge of gutting the nation's premier civil-rights law but drew back, opting instead to inject new vigor into part of the Voting Rights Act allowing local governments to bail out of the law's requirements. Civil-rights leaders pronounced themselves relieved, but they are clearly concerned that many members of the court remain wary of a key provision of the act.
The law requires the Justice Department to review election rules in all or part of eight southern states -- along with Arizona, Alaska, and a scattering of areas with a history of voter discrimination. But because it allows the federal government to intrude in local decisions about elections, opponents said it was unconstitutional. They argued it had outlived its original purpose: to tear down barriers to minority registration and turnout.
The court's opinion, by Chief Justice John Roberts
, acknowledges the historical record of discrimination as a justification for the Voting Rights Act's passage in 1965. But he strongly suggests the law is now on thin ice: "the registration gap between white and black voters is in the single digits," he says, in states covered by the law. "In some of those states, blacks now register and vote at higher rates than whites," Roberts said.
"Things have changed in the South. Voter turnout and registration rates now approach parity... And minority candidates hold office at unprecedented levels," he added.
But only Justice Clarence Thomas
was willing to strike the law down on constitutional grounds. Instead, the court interpreted the law as broadly allowing individual local governments to bail out of the law's requirements if they can demonstrate they have been free of discriminatory practices. The court was unanimous on this point and 8-1 on the constitutionality question, with Thomas dissenting.
The big question raised by today's decision is: Now what? New lawsuits will undoubtedly be filed by local governments, and the issue will soon be back before the court. That explains the response today from the civil rights community -- relief that the U.S. Supreme Court could not bring itself to strike down the Voting Rights Act, but concern that the next big challenge to the law, whenever it comes, may not produce the same result.
