Supreme Court hearing arguments in case in which ACLU defends the constitutionality of Section 5 of Voting Rights Act; Parts of Florida are covered by Section 5
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 27th, 2013
CONTACT: ACLU of Florida Media Office, 786-363-2737, media@aclufl.org
MIAMI
The Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965 and most recently re-authorized in 2006 by a vote of 390 to 33 in the House and unanimously in the Senate. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has been an important tool in the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida’s work defending the rights of voters in Florida, including in recent lawsuits challenging laws and policies which restricted the right to vote in Florida in advance of the 2012 election.
The following statement may be attributed to Howard Simon, Executive Director, ACLU of Florida.
“The Voting Rights Act, the keystone achievement of the Civil Rights Movement, is designed to prevent state officials from frustrating the constitutional rights of minority voters to exercise their right to vote. Bills like Florida’s HB 1355 – the Voter Suppression Act – exhibit why Congress re-enacted, and why we continue to need, the Voting Rights Act. Nothing is more fundamental than the right to vote, which has been under attack in Florida and across the nation. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, he called it ‘one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom.’ That is just as true today as it was then.”
The following statement may be attributed to Julie Ebenstein, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Florida, who led much of the organization’s legal work regarding voting rights prior to the 2012 election.
“Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires many states and localities, including parts of Florida, to prove that changes in practices and procedures affecting voting neither have a discriminatory purpose nor a ‘racially retrogressive’ effect, was the backbone of a number of challenges to voter suppression tactics in Florida in the lead-up to the 2012 election. Without the Voting Rights Act and the protection that it engendered for the voters of Florida, the confusion and chaos regarding elections in 2012 here would have been far worse. The Voting Rights Act is indispensable in the fight to protect the right of all citizens to vote.”
More information on the case is available here:
The Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965 and most recently re-authorized in 2006 by a vote of 390 to 33 in the House and unanimously in the Senate. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has been an important tool in the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida’s work defending the rights of voters in Florida, including in recent lawsuits challenging laws and policies which restricted the right to vote in Florida in advance of the 2012 election.
The following statement may be attributed to Howard Simon, Executive Director, ACLU of Florida.
“The Voting Rights Act, the keystone achievement of the Civil Rights Movement, is designed to prevent state officials from frustrating the constitutional rights of minority voters to exercise their right to vote. Bills like Florida’s HB 1355 – the Voter Suppression Act – exhibit why Congress re-enacted, and why we continue to need, the Voting Rights Act. Nothing is more fundamental than the right to vote, which has been under attack in Florida and across the nation. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, he called it ‘one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom.’ That is just as true today as it was then.”
The following statement may be attributed to Julie Ebenstein, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Florida, who led much of the organization’s legal work regarding voting rights prior to the 2012 election.
“Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires many states and localities, including parts of Florida, to prove that changes in practices and procedures affecting voting neither have a discriminatory purpose nor a ‘racially retrogressive’ effect, was the backbone of a number of challenges to voter suppression tactics in Florida in the lead-up to the 2012 election. Without the Voting Rights Act and the protection that it engendered for the voters of Florida, the confusion and chaos regarding elections in 2012 here would have been far worse. The Voting Rights Act is indispensable in the fight to protect the right of all citizens to vote.”
More information on the case is available here: http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/shelby-county-v-holder
