Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, in the fifty plus years since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., articulated the dream of a generation, this nation has seen inspiring progress toward the ideal of equality under the law. Nowhere has this progress been more dramatic than in the arena of voting rights. The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 heralded a new era of political opportunity for African-Americans not seen since Reconstruction. At the state and local level, Section 5 of the Act--which required jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination to obtain advanced approval for voting changes--was especially important in leveling the playing field by shifting notice requirements and the burden of proof to jurisdictions with a history of discrimination, rather than relying on traditional litigation which would have taken years and countless costs to root out patterns of discrimination in voting. More than any other provision of the Act, Section 5 can be credited with the sustained progress to voting equality. The Supreme Court, in its 5-4 Shelby County v. Holder decision from 2013, has suspended implementation of the Section 5 pre-clearance program by invalidating the formula used to designate covered jurisdictions. This decision has seriously undermined the nation's progress toward equal voting rights by allowing discriminatory voting measures to evade streamlined review and requiring minority voters to engage in costly protracted litigation.…”