Alabama's failed redistricting plan could bring back preclearance

Last edited Tue Feb 21, 2017, 07:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Preclearance could be making a return to Alabama.

Three years after the US Supreme Court struck down sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that required several states, including Alabama, to receive preclearance from the Department of Justice before making changes to State voting laws, Alabama Republicans might have inadvertently revived the requirement through their 2012 redistricting efforts.

Because a federal court (following directives from the US Supreme Court) ruled those newly drawn voting districts to be unconstitutional, several attorneys believe a clause in Section 3 of the VRA has been triggered. That clause states that when a “voting subdivision,” such as a state, city or county, commits one or more constitutional violations of voting laws, the Federal court “shall” subject that entity to having future voting laws preapproved by the court and the DOJ.

“We are starting to see this more and more in these types of cases across the country since the (Supreme Court) struck down the preclearance section in the Voting Rights Act,” said Randall Marshall, the legal director at the Alabama office of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It is possible that the court could impose such a remedy in this (Alabama) case. It has happened in similar cases.”

Read more: http://www.alreporter.com/2017/02/17/alabamas-failed-redistricting-plan-bring-back-preclearance/