NYC officials petition court in support of Voting Rights Act
The City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian caucus members, along with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, are prepared to file an amicus brief in support of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a significant piece of civil rights legislation that outlaws discriminatory voting practices.
The move to file the brief arose from a recent challenge to the Act in the Shelby v. Holder case to be argued in front of the United States Supreme Court in February 2013. Shelby County, Alabama has sued the United States Department of Justice, charging that portions of the law are unconstitutional.
At the forefront of the case is Section 5 of the Act. This section requires that jurisdictions that had, in the past, imposed literacy tests, and had less than 50 percent voter turnout in the 1964 or 1968 elections, be subject to special scrutiny by the Department of Justice or a panel of judges from US District Court for DC when changing their election and voting laws. The purpose is to ensure that the voting power of racial and ethnic minority groups is not diminished.