Louie Gohmert: “My friends across the aisle obviously are concerned about section 4 of the Voting Rights Act being struck down. We…”

“My friends across the aisle obviously are concerned about section 4 of the Voting Rights Act being struck down. We debated the extension of the Voting Rights Act in the Judiciary Committee, and I have great respect for then-Chairman John Conyers. And as I mentioned to him privately, as well, there's no way it's going to avoid being violative of equal protection when you have, as was determined in 2009, five of the six original States that now have less racial disparity than the rest of the country and the worst racial disparity is in Massachusetts. You can't just cram a punishment down on States just because you have a majority when great work has been done by the Voting Rights Act. It has done a good thing, and it was time for a new formula so we could capture the States that showed such racial disparity. I look forward to working with my friends across the aisle to subjecting Massachusetts and any other violators--I know there aren't any others that bad--to section 5, and I'm sure we can get that done. ____________________”