[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 95 (Friday, June 28, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1000]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      REGARDING SUPREME COURT DECISION IN SHELBY COUNTY VS. HOLDER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 27, 2013

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, 
decided this past Tuesday, the justification relied upon by the 
conservative majority of the Supreme Court to strike down Section 4 of 
the Voting Rights Act today essentially comes down to this: ``Times 
change.'' Chief Justice Roberts is right, times have changed. What he 
neglects to add is that the change is due almost entirely to the 
existence and vigorous enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.
  In the same way that the vaccine invented by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1953 
eradicated the crippling effects but did not eliminate the cause of 
polio, the Voting Rights Act has succeeded in stymying the practices 
that resulted in the wholesale disenfranchisement of African Americans 
in the southern region of our country but not in eliminating the 
motivations underlying them. And that is why the vaccine of the Voting 
Rights Act is needed as much today as Dr. Salk's vaccine is needed to 
prevent another polio epidemic.
  In his opinion, the Chief Justice applauds this remarkable progress 
brought about by the Voting Rights Act and concludes it was so 
successful in preventing the states with the worst and most egregious 
records of voter suppression, intimidation from disenfranchising 
minority voters that those States should no longer be subject to the 
federal supervision responsible for the success he celebrates.
  But in a record exceeding 15,000 pages in length compiled after 
holding 21 hearings and receiving testimony from more than 150 
witnesses, Congress carefully and meticulously documented why the 
covered States could not yet be trusted to refrain from a return to 
their days of shame. And because of Section 5, they could not do so 
even if they tried.
  Without Section 5, Congress recognized that many of the advances of 
the past decades could be wiped out overnight with new schemes and 
devices, such as the mid-decade redistricting conducted in my home 
State of Texas, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in part in 
LULAC v. Perry, 546 U.S. 399 (2006) or the attempt to eliminate the 
North Forest Independent School District in my congressional district.
  I call upon the leadership of the Congress and President Obama to 
follow the example of their predecessors during the 109th Congress and 
begin immediately to work together to come up with the legislative 
remedy needed to repair the damage caused by the Supreme Court's 
misreading of history and disregard of its own settled precedents when 
it comes to Congress's power to protect the right to vote guaranteed by 
the 15th Amendment.
  While the Congress works to come up with the pre-clearance 
legislative fix, the administration in the meantime should begin 
redirecting its resources to wage the many ``post-clearance'' battles 
that lay ahead.

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