[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 26 (Monday, February 25, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S806-S807]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VOTING RIGHTS ACT
Mr. LEAHY. Less than 7 years ago, Republicans and Democrats in the
Senate and in the House of Representatives joined together to
reauthorize key expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
We explained and documented our findings that this landmark civil
rights law was still needed because of continuing discrimination and to
preserve the progress that had been made. Because of this extensive
record and the acceptance of the Voting Rights Act's importance in our
country, our 2006 reauthorization of this crucial law was marked by
Members of Congress from both parties and from every corner of the
Nation coming together to renew one of the cornerstones of American
Democracy.
It is a sad irony that on the same day we will be honoring Civil
Rights icon Rosa Parks by unveiling her statue in the U.S. Capitol, the
first full statue of an African American to stand in the halls of
Congress, across the street the Supreme Court will be hearing arguments
from those challenging the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act
reauthorization named in part for her. In the pending case, the
challengers seek to strike down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act even
though that critical section has protected constitutional guarantees
against discrimination in voting where 100 years of prior civil rights
laws failed. The Supreme Court got it right four years ago when it
upheld the constitutional authority of Congress to reauthorize Section
5 against a similar challenge. Neither the words of the Constitution
nor the importance of these critical provisions for protecting the
right to vote has changed in the last four years. Under the specific
words of the 14th and 15th Amendments, Congress has the power to remedy
discrimination and enforce the Amendments by enacting laws that address
racial discrimination in connection with voting. That is what we did
nearly unanimously less than 7 years ago. And over the past year lower
courts have repeatedly upheld both its constitutionality and its
protections. In light of the lengthy court findings from just the last
year, there can be no doubt that the operation of the Voting Rights Act
is continuing to protect American voters from discrimination.
In his historic ``I Have a Dream'' speech, Martin Luther King, Jr.
proclaimed: ``When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent
words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they
were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall
heir.'' The Voting Rights Act is one of our most important means for
enforcing this promise and upholding the Constitution's guarantee of
equal rights and equal protection of the law. Reauthorizing and
restoring the Voting Rights Act was the right thing to do, not only for
those who fought and bled for its passage but also for those who come
after us--our children and our grandchildren. We owe it to them to
continue our commitment to this vital Act. No one's right to vote
should be abridged, suppressed or denied in the United States of
America.
As we celebrate Black History Month and the significant progress we
have made as a Nation, let us not forget the promissory note to future
generations and the continuing need for civil rights laws such as the
Voting Rights Act.
Our Nation has grown stronger since its Founding as more Americans
have been able to exercise their right to vote. The actions taken by
previous generations--through a Civil War, through Constitutional
amendments, and through the long struggles of the civil rights
movement--have worked to break down barriers that stood in the way of
all Americans participating in our Democracy.
It has not been an easy road. The pervasive discriminatory tactics
that led to the original Voting Rights Act were deeply rooted. As a
nation, this effort to ensure equal protection dates back more than 140
years to the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870, the last of
the post-Civil War Reconstruction amendments. Yet, it took 95 years
from the passage of the 15th Amendment and a historic struggle for
civil rights for people of all races to begin the effective exercise of
the rights guaranteed by that Amendment. The struggle reached a crucial
turning point on March 7, 1965, on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma,
AL, when state troopers brutally attacked John Lewis and his fellow
civil rights marchers who were trying to exercise their civil rights.
The events of that day, now known as ``Bloody Sunday,'' were a catalyst
to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act, which finally ensured
a century after the enactment of the Civil War amendments that the
Constitution's guarantees of equal access to the political process,
regardless of race, would not be undermined by discriminatory
practices.
Prior to the Voting Rights Act, minorities of all races faced major
barriers to participation in the political process, through the use of
such devices as poll taxes, exclusionary primaries, intimidation by
voting officials, language barriers, and systematic vote dilution.
Section 5 provides a remedy for unconstitutional discrimination in
voting by requiring certain jurisdictions with a history of
discrimination to ``pre-clear'' all voting changes with either the
Justice Department or the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia. This remedy combats the practice of covered jurisdictions
shifting from one invalidated discriminatory voting tactic to another,
which had undermined efforts to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment for
nearly a century.
In 2006, congressional leadership stood together on the steps of the
Capitol to introduce a bill to reauthorize and reinvigorate the Voting
Rights Act--an historic announcement in an era of intense partisanship.
We came together in recognition that there are few things as critical
to our Nation, and to American citizenship, as voting. In sharp
contrast to the tremendous resistance and bitter politics which met the
initial enactment of the Voting Rights Act, our efforts in 2006
overcame objections through discussions, the hearing process and by
developing an overwhelming record of justification for extension of the
expiring provisions. The legislation contained specific findings about
the need for reauthorization and concluded that without reauthorization
the gains we have made would be undermined. Our efforts reached
completion when President Bush signed the bill into law after a
unanimous vote in the Senate and nearly unanimous vote in the House.
At that time, I was the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary
Committee and the lead Democratic Senate sponsor of the
reauthorization. Over the course of 19 hearings, the Senate and House
Judiciary Committees developed a comprehensive record supporting the
continuing need for a reauthorized and reinvigorated Voting Rights Act.
In the Senate Judiciary Committee alone we received testimony from 46
witnesses, including a
[[Page S807]]
range of constitutional scholars, voting rights advocates, and Supreme
Court practitioners, regarding the need for reauthorization of the
expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act. In addition, the
Committee gathered and considered thousands of pages of testimony,
articles, letters, and other evidence from these witnesses and other
sources discussing these issues. This evidence, along with voluminous
evidence gathered in the House--under the leadership of then-Judiciary
Chairman James Sensenbrenner, Mel Watt, John Conyers and John Lewis--
provided an overwhelming demonstration that Section 5 continues to be
an effective and necessary tool for protecting minority voting rights.
At the time the Senate voted, we had before us the House Committee
Report, the full debate from the floor of the House of Representatives,
including debate surrounding four substantive amendments to H.R. 9 that
were all rejected, leading up to final passage of the Voting Rights Act
reauthorization. Before we voted, I also provided the Senate with some
of the extensive evidence received over several months of hearings in
the Judiciary Committee about the persistence of discriminatory
practices in Section 5 covered jurisdictions.
The record gathered by the Judiciary Committee included three
categories of evidence supporting the continuation of Section 5. First,
we found evidence that even with Section 5 in place, covered
jurisdictions continued to engage in recurring discriminatory tactics,
often in subtle forms that play on racially polarized voting to deny
the effectiveness of the votes cast by members of a particular race.
Second, we found evidence that Section 5 provides an effective
deterrent against bad practices in covered jurisdictions. Finally, we
found evidence that Section 5 plays a vital role in securing the gains
minority voters have achieved against the risk of backsliding.
Most importantly, of course, at the time we voted, all Senators had
before them the detailed findings in Section 2 of the legislation based
on the record and all Senators endorsed those findings with their
votes. For example, those findings explicitly include:
Evidence of continued discrimination includ[ing] . . . the
hundreds of objections interposed, requests for more
information submitted followed by voting changes withdrawn
from consideration by jurisdictions covered by the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, and section 5 enforcement actions
undertaken by the Department of Justice in covered
jurisdictions since 1982 that prevented election practices,
such as annexation, at-large voting, and the use of multi-
member districts, from being enacted to dilute minority
voting strength; . . . the number of requests for declaratory
judgments denied by the United States District Court for the
District of Columbia; [and] . . . the continued filing of
section 2 cases that originated in covered jurisdiction . . .
By passing the legislation, Congress adopted and reaffirmed these
detailed findings, including Congress' determination that:
[t]he continued evidence of racially polarized voting in
each of the jurisdictions covered by the expiring provisions
of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 demonstrates that racial and
language minorities remain politically vulnerable, warranting
the continued protection of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Now some suggest that Section 5 should be a victim of its success. In
my view abandoning a successful deterrent just because it works defies
logic and common sense. When Congress finds an effective and
constitutional way to prevent violations of the law, the courts must
uphold it. In fact, since 1966, whenever the Supreme Court has reviewed
or even cited to the Voting Rights Act, it has affirmed the Act as a
valid exercise of congressional authority. That is what the Court
rightly did again in 2009.
Nothing we have seen in the time since Congress reauthorized the
Voting Rights Act in 2006 or since the Supreme Court again upheld
Section 5 in 2009 has invalidated Congress' determination to
reauthorize that critical remedy for racial discrimination in voting.
In fact, the events of last year's election only serve to remind us
anew of the continuing need for Section 5. Last year, panels of judges
appointed by presidents of both parties found that Texas intentionally
discriminated against minority voters in redistricting, and that Texas
failed to demonstrate that its voter ID law does not impose greater
burdens on minority voters. A separate panel of three Federal judges
approved South Carolina's voter identification law under Section 5
starting this year, with judges appointed by Republican and Democratic
Presidents noting that South Carolina legislators passed a less
restrictive law than they desired specifically in order to comply with
the Voting Rights Act. Without Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,
worse laws would be in place and the fundamental rights of many
Americans would be diminished.
The Voting Rights Act is one of the most important laws ever passed
by Congress, transforming America by ushering the nation out of a
history of discrimination into an era of greater inclusion. The Act has
been a tremendous source of protection for the voting rights of those
long discriminated against and a great deterrent against discriminatory
efforts cropping up anew. As we celebrate Black History Month, we
should reflect not only on how far we have come, but how far we still
must travel to truly secure the guarantees of the Constitution for all
Americans.
Ensuring that all Americans are able to vote and have their vote
counted should be an issue of concern to Democrats and Republicans, and
a matter of conscience for all of us regardless of political party.
That is how it was in 2006, when members of Congress, Republicans and
Democrats, stood together on the Capitol steps to reaffirm our
commitment to full democratic participation by reauthorizing the key
expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
I am confident that this week when the Justices review the
substantial record relied upon by America's elected representatives in
Congress, they will again do the right thing. Congress is at the height
of its power when giving enforceable meaning to the 14th and the 15th
amendments. That is what Congress did when passing the Voting Rights
Act in 1965, and what we did when we voted nearly unanimously to extend
the vital remedies of Section 5 in 2006. Now the Supreme Court is
called upon to respect the role of Congress by upholding this vital
civil rights legislation as it rightly did in 2009.
There are few things as critical to our Nation, and to American
citizenship, as voting. Like the rights guaranteed by the First
Amendment, the right to vote is foundational because it secures the
effective exercise of all other rights. As people are able to register,
vote, and elect candidates of their choice, their interests and rights
get attention. The very legitimacy of our government is dependent on
the access all Americans have to the political process. Our democracy
and our Nation have been better and richer for the protection of the
Voting Rights Act. Now is no time for backsliding. Now is the time to
renew our commitment to the right to vote for all Americans.
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