It’s been more than a year and half since the Supreme Court gutted legislation that prevented voter discrimination in the United States, and prospects that Congress will fix the damage done are dimming.
On Tuesday, Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced legislation to restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act, however the ranks of Republicans supporting the measure are negligible.
So far, only three other Republicans have sponsored the bill. Last Congress, 11 GOP members supported similar legislation.
The Voting Rights Amendment Act, as it’s being called, updates section four of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) to include a new formula that determines when states have to seek pre-clearance from the federal government for any changes to voting laws.
The old formula was struck down by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling, a vote carried by the conservative wing of the court, which claimed that the provision was outdated.
“Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions,” said Chief Justice John Roberts in his 2013 ruling.
Early on it appeared as though Congress would act in a bipartisan fashion to assent to the wishes of the Supreme Court and pass legislation to update section four. Before being watered down by judicial review, the law was hardly viewed as controversial on Capitol Hill. The last time VRA was reauthorized, in 2006, the House approved it 390-33. In the Senate, the bill passed unanimously, 98-0.
But since then, a number of state legislatures have passed restrictive laws that cut back on early voting and mandated the use of voter IDs. The added layer of security, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, is unnecessary and disproportionately affects poor and minority voters.
States that passed those laws with a history of de jure racial discrimination, including Texas and Alabama, were previously required under section four of VRA to have electoral reforms first approved by the Justice Department. When the Supreme Court struck down that statute, the added layer of federal oversight intended to prevent against voter discrimination disappeared.
The new legislation introduced on Wednesday updates the VRA with a new formula that applies to all states that had voting-related civil rights violations within the last 15 years. The law also makes it easier for plaintiffs to use federal courts as a remedy against voting laws believed to be discriminatory.
“Our legitimacy as elected officials relies on the integrity of the ballot box. I urge my colleagues to support the VRAA because it is vital to our commitment to never again allow racial prejudices in the electoral process,” said Rep. Sensenbrenner.
Those lofty ideals, however, are falling on deaf ears within his own party.
Last January, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) suggested that a new VRA was no longer necessary. And during the previous 113th Congress, not a single Republican Senator signed on to bill introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that would have updated the VRA.
