Political Quotes

“With the Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act. At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the key protections the Court removed from the act were, as he put it: ``extraordinary measures to address an extraordinary problem.'' Sadly and extraordinarily, many of those problems still exist. I would argue that the Voting Rights Act was extraordinarily successful. Since that decision, the Federal Court commented that a voter ID law in North Carolina didn't stop fraud. Instead, the provisions that were struck down ``target African Americans with almost surgical precision.'' Courts found significant disenfranchisement caused by new laws in Wisconsin as well. Mr. Speaker, every American has a right and the freedom to cast their vote without interference. People have fought and bled for that right. We are in danger of going back to a time when those rights were cast aside. That is why it is time for Congress to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act to modernize the law, to put back in place provisions stripped from the Voting Rights Act, and to ensure that no State can discriminate by creating barriers to the ballot box. If we want to remain a nation that empowers its citizens, we need swift action on this bill. ____________________”