SCOTUS in June, Part 1: Voting Rights Act

One of the biggest reasons that SCOTUS gave for overturning was States rights and sovereignty. “the Framers of the Constitution intended the States to keep for themselves, as provided in the Tenth Amendment, the power to regulate elections”, and while they acknowledged that the Federal Government retains control over federal elections, they stated that “States have ‘broad powers to determine the conditions under which the right of suffrage may be exercised.” This includes areas like drawing lines for congressional districts. One way that many have contended has become hugely problematic is the gerrymandering of congressional districts to steal elections, under the guise of VRA. The Court recognized that VRA violates States rights and equal sovereignty.

The biggest factor in the Court’s decision to remove this violation of the 10th Amendment is the fact that things have changed drastically in almost 50 years. For instance, in Alabama there was a 49.9% gap in white versus black registered voters, by 2004 that gap was 0.9%. In Georgia the gap went from 35.2% to -0.7%! These figures were compiled by Congress. SCOTUS acknowledged that the improvements were most likely because of VRA, but that it didn’t excuse leaving in in place using data from 1965.

The Court also had a problem with the fact that VRA was “reverse engineered” meaning that they targeted States with problems, then went about finding the solution. SCOTUS said “…the Government’s reverse-engineering argument does not even attempt to demonstrate the continued relevance of the formula to the problem it targets” and said without any relevance, it shouldn’t be in place.

This decision is a good one. While the Court wasn’t happy about “striking down an Act of Congress” they saw that the need that brought out this unconstitutional law was no longer in play.

What we need to recognize now is the far reaching consequences of this decision. This decision could be the key to fighting and overturning Obamacare. If there is any Federal law on the books that violates State’s rights and oversteps Federal authority, this would be it.

Even bad decisions can be used for good … up next, DOMA…

Image: Source: Flickr: My Trusty Gavel; author: Brian Turner; Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license