[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 25, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H4144-H4147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE STATE OF VOTING RIGHTS IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special 
Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, it is with great honor that I 
rise today to coanchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order 
hour along with my distinguished colleague, Representative Terri 
Sewell, of the great State of Alabama.
  For the next 60 minutes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus 
will have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people on 
the subject of the Shelby v. Holder decision and the American Voting 
Rights Act, specifically the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, an issue of 
great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, the 
constituents we represent, and all Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).
  Ms. SEWELL. Madam Speaker, today, we in the Congressional Black 
Caucus gather to observe the 11th anniversary of the Supreme Court's 
Shelby County v. Holder decision and to reflect on the state of voting 
rights in America.
  It was exactly 11 years ago today when the Supreme Court's 
conservative majority gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 
1965, eliminating voter protections and removing Federal oversight from 
States with a proven record of voter discrimination.
  We have seen, in those 11 years, 31 States institute at least 103 new 
laws to restrict voting rights. It is no surprise that those laws 
disproportionately target African-American and minority voters.
  The consequences of the Shelby decision have been clear and 
devastating: long lines, strict ID requirements that require time and 
money to obtain, closed polling stations in communities of color, bans 
on early voting and absentee voting, the purging of voter rolls, and 
the list goes on and on.
  In my home State of Alabama, lawmakers have recently made it a felony 
to assist someone with their absentee ballot. While these tactics may 
be new, we know that they are borrowed from the same playbook that has 
been used for generations to silence the voices of African-American and 
other minority voters.
  While Black voters may not need to count the number of jelly beans in 
a jar, modern-day barriers to voting are no less pernicious than the 
poll tax and the literacy tests of the past.
  In Shelby v. Holder, the Supreme Court was clear that the onus was on 
Congress to come up with a modern-day formula to determine which States 
are subject to Federal oversight.
  Well, I am proud to say that we have done just that. Working together 
with our Nation's premier civil rights and voting rights organizations, 
we have come up with a modern-day formula to ensure States and 
localities with a recent history of voter discrimination are prohibited 
from restricting voter access. We even named it after our late, great 
colleague and hero, Congressman John Lewis.
  The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which we introduced 
for the fifth time in September, will protect the rights of every 
American to vote.

  Despite our efforts, our colleagues across the aisle have continued 
to block these efforts from being considered.
  The fact that voting rights has been a partisan issue is frankly 
baffling to me. After all, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was 
reauthorized not once, not twice, but three times with broad bipartisan 
support, most recently by President George W. Bush.
  Yet, all of a sudden, our colleagues across the aisle have abandoned 
the

[[Page H4145]]

issue of voting rights, choosing instead to spread disinformation and 
misinformation and to sow doubt about voters and the integrity of our 
elections.
  It is sad, Mr. Speaker. It is shameful. As elected officials, we 
should be working tirelessly to ensure all Americans are able to vote 
instead of picking and choosing who can have access to the ballot box 
and who cannot.
  Mr. Speaker, this fight is extremely personal for me. It was in my 
hometown of Selma, Alabama, nearly 60 years ago, where foot soldiers 
like John Lewis risked their lives on the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the 
equal right of all Americans to vote. They prayed, they protested, they 
bled, and some even died for that right. It was their sacrifice that 
gave us the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crown jewel of the civil 
rights and voting rights movement.
  Those foot soldiers were ordinary Americans who had the audacity to 
make this Nation live up to its highest ideals of equality and justice 
for all. They leave behind a strong legacy of courage and sacrifice, 
and we must ensure that it was not in vain.
  It was John Lewis who told us that the right to vote is precious. It 
is almost sacred. It is the most fundamental nonviolent tool in our 
democracy.
  Mr. Speaker, our vote is our voice, and our democracy is strongest 
when every American is able to make their voices heard at the ballot 
box.
  As we gather to observe the 11th anniversary of the Shelby County v. 
Holder decision, let us draw courage from the sacrifices of our 
foremothers and our forefathers.
  We are not asking anyone to put their lives on the line. We are 
simply asking our Republican colleagues to have the political courage 
to do what is right.

                              {time}  2000

  We in the Congressional Black Caucus are demanding that Congress take 
up and pass the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and to 
do it without delay.
  We are united in this fight, and we are ready to get into some good 
trouble.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois for yielding to me, 
and I look forward to a rigorous occasion in which we talk about the 
importance of today being the 11th anniversary of the Shelby County v. 
Holder decision and our need to pass in immediate terms the John Robert 
Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
  We in the Congressional Black Caucus are ready to get into some good 
trouble, and tonight I know that we will make sure that this good 
trouble is put to good use.
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
the great State of Alabama (Ms. Sewell), and I wish to be totally 
associated with all of her great remarks and scholarship.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today because 11 years ago the Supreme Court of 
the United States proved that it lacked the judicial imagination 
befitting an institution clothed with immense power as 11 years ago the 
Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Frighteningly, 11 
years ago, the highest Court in the land decided that racism had 
magically evaporated in America and that hatred had somehow receded 
quietly into the history of the Republic never to be seen or heard from 
again.
  Eleven years ago, nine Justices on the Supreme Court decided that 
they were social scientists with a particular expertise in racism and 
the politics of voting. Instead of being Justices who were hired by the 
American people to decide the constitutionality of a law, they rather 
took the position that the Court knew more about voter suppression than 
the people who have dedicated their entire lives to the subject.
  Nine Justices on the Supreme Court, Mr. Speaker, thought they had a 
better working knowledge on the state of racism in America than people 
living with it every day. However, I rise tonight to declare 
emphatically that nothing could be further from the truth.
  This Supreme Court does not know more about racism in America than do 
the people who are the survivors of it. The members of the Supreme 
Court are not experts on everything. They are not omniscient. They are 
not infallible. They are not beyond all moral and political reproach.
  In fact, based upon what we have recently heard about certain members 
of the Supreme Court, it would seem that the complete opposite, in 
fact, is true. When it comes to the Supreme Court as it is currently 
configured, fallibility abounds.
  I rise tonight, Mr. Speaker, because the elected Representatives of 
the American people cannot allow six unelected and seemingly uninformed 
individuals to undo the moral and democratic gains won by the civil 
rights movement over 50 years without doing something about it.
  All over this country, we have seen the disparate impact that the 
Shelby County decision has had on voting access in America, and what 
was once thought to be a regional problem has now metastasized and 
become nationalized.
  Since the Shelby decision, every region of this country is struggling 
to overcome novel attempts at voter suppression and the like. 
Regrettably, 11 years ago, those of us in the civil rights community 
told the leaders of this Nation what was going to happen.
  We told America that gutting the Voting Rights Act would cause voter 
suppression to spread like a virus in a second-grade classroom, and 
that is exactly what has happened. That is exactly where we find 
ourselves today.
  Those of us who believe that the only threat to democracy are events 
like unto those on January 6 are painfully naive. The greatest threat 
to democracy isn't the outright violence that takes place when citizens 
who are motivated by lies engage in hand-to-hand combat with one other, 
but rather by the legalized and the systemic unraveling of the 
cherished democratic norms. However, those of us who love America 
cannot sit idly by and allow the darkness of bigotry to, once again, 
embed itself into the electoral systems of this country as it once was.
  Those of us who have a constitutional mandate to establish justice, 
ensure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty cannot 
allow what African Americans did to expand the general welfare of this 
country's commitment to opportunity be erased.
  Nothing is more indelible and inherently fundamental for the success 
of a thriving democracy than is the quality of a citizen's right to 
vote, because in America, voting is the manifestation of citizenship. 
In this country, if you cannot vote, then you are not a citizen.
  Moreover, what most people miss about the civil rights movement is 
that at its core it was an attempt to empower African Americans with 
the rights afforded to us by virtue of our citizenship.
  The right to vote is our birthright, and, yet, for hundreds of years, 
this country denied African Americans born in this Nation what was 
legitimately due to them. Moreover, it is only through blood, sweat, 
and tears that African Americans were able to fight in every war to, 
once again, regain full citizenship.
  It was only because people were willing to give their lives that 
Black people in this Nation can cast a ballot for the candidate of 
their choice, and we are not going to let anyone take those rights 
away.
  Reflecting upon Shelby v. Holder 11 years later, I would like to 
quote the Assistant State's Attorney General Kristen Clarke.
  She said: ``This anniversary provides an important opportunity to 
reflect on the profound consequences of that opinion'' in Shelby County 
v. Holder ``which struck down the key provisions of the Voting Rights 
Act of 1965 and left millions of voters of color without the mechanism 
that had stopped voting discrimination before it could be implemented.
  ``When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into 
law, he described it as `one of the most monumental laws in the entire 
history of American freedom.' The Voting Rights Act was the product of 
bold action by Congress. It forcefully addressed the problem that 
nearly a century after the Reconstruction Amendments, millions of 
Americans were still denied the ability'' to cast their ``vote and 
participate in our democracy because of their race.

  ``One of the most important pieces of the Voting Rights Act'' that 
was taken away ``was section 5's `preclearance' requirement. Enacted in 
1965 and reauthorized by Congress in 1970, 1975, 1982,

[[Page H4146]]

and 2006, section 5 required jurisdictions that had a history of voting 
discrimination to obtain approval from the Attorney General or a 
Federal Court before implementing changes in election procedures and 
practices.
  ``Covered jurisdictions could not implement their proposed voting 
changes until they had received preclearance. Thanks to section 5, 
jurisdictions that tried to make changes that had a discriminatory 
impact or were adopted with a discriminatory purpose were blocked from 
doing so. More than 800 proposed changes were altered or withdrawn in 
the period after 1982 alone.
  ``A repository of the department's section 5 `objection letters,' 
which provided an official record of each objection as well as the 
basis of the decision, can be found.
  ``The Shelby County ruling marked a significant turning point for 
voting rights in the United States. In its decision, the Supreme Court 
invalidated, on constitutional grounds, section 4(b) of the Voting 
Rights Act, which provided the formula for determining which 
jurisdictions were covered under section 5.
  ``Without that formula, all jurisdictions were released from coverage 
overnight. Section 5 was rendered effectively inoperative, freeing 
States and localities to enact voting laws without Federal oversight.
  ``States wasted no time implementing election changes that had not or 
might not have survived the preclearance requirement. On June 25, 2013, 
the very day that the Supreme Court issued the Shelby opinion, Texas 
officials announced that they would implement a discriminatory and 
burdensome photo identification statute. And on June 26, the day after 
the Shelby County decision, Senator Tom Apodaca, chairman of the North 
Carolina Senate Rules Committee, publicly stated that the North 
Carolina legislature would be moving forward with an omnibus law 
imposing multiple voting restrictions.''
  Why weren't they trying to expand voting?
  They said: We will use this decision to restrict voting.
  ``In the absence of preclearance, the statutes went into effect and 
the department, along with private parties, had to file suit under a 
different part of the Voting Rights Act to enjoin them.''
  Mr. Speaker, I continue:
  ``States have adopted photo identification requirements, limited 
those who can provide assistance at polling places, reduced options for 
early voting, and closed polling places. Unfortunately, Justice Ruth 
Bader Ginsburg proved prophetic when she observed in her Shelby dissent 
that ending preclearance was like `throwing away your umbrella in a 
rainstorm because you are not getting wet.'
  ``Without section 5, new laws can be challenged only through long, 
protracted, resource-intensive, case-by-case legislation,'' and fights.
  The John Lewis Voting Rights Act is the most fundamental piece of 
legislation pending before the United States Congress, and it must be 
enacted with all deliberate speed. This is something, Mr. Speaker, we 
must do.
  Securing the right to vote is the moral obligation we have to the 
principles of America and to whatever we believe is a future worthy of 
our children.
  Let me remind my colleagues that the progenitors of suppression do 
not stop with their initial targets. Today, the votes of African 
Americans are being suppressed all over the Nation, but tomorrow it 
might well be yours.
  Do not forget the lessons of history. The people who are coming for 
our rights will never be satisfied with what they have attempted to do 
to us. Soon they will look for new targets; that is to say, new objects 
of their resentment, their ridicule, and their scorn.
  However, what the Supreme Court Shelby decision has reinforced, in no 
uncertain terms, is the fact that elections have consequences. The 
inability to elect a Democratic President in 2016 led to this horrible 
decision, and those of us who stand on the precipice of a national 
election must remember this invaluable lesson.
  Let us not forget that in 2016 the woman with the most votes did not 
win the presidency.
  Whatever policy differences we may have with the President of the 
United States, we cannot allow the protection of our civil rights to be 
left in the hands of Justices who are so ideologically motivated that 
they unapologetically fly insurrectionist flags upside down at their 
homes.
  Moreover, the only way to protect America from the conservative 
judicial fanaticism of the Supreme Court is to reelect President Joe 
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. There is simply no other way 
for us to go.
  Let us do what we must do so that justice will roll down like waters 
and righteousness like a mighty stream.
  Mr. Speaker, you have heard from our distinguished colleague, the 
Honorable Terri Sewell from the great State of Alabama, on this topic 
for the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
  Mr. Speaker, all issues of great importance to the Congressional 
Black Caucus are our constituents, Congress, and all Americans tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).
  Ms. SEWELL. Mr. Speaker, as we conclude our Special Order hour on 
this very important day, the 11th anniversary of the Shelby County v. 
Holder decision, we issue a call to action. We in the Congressional 
Black Caucus understand that the vote is the most fundamental tool of 
our democracy.
  I cannot believe that 60 years after John Lewis was bludgeoned on a 
bridge that my colleague and I stand here today to talk about restoring 
the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

                              {time}  2015

  It tells us that progress is elusive, and every generation has to 
fight and fight again in order to hold onto the progress that we have 
made and to extend it.
  John Lewis reminded us that ours is not a cause of 1 day, 1 week, 1 
month. No, our struggle is a struggle of a lifetime, and everyone must 
do their part.
  We here in the Congressional Black Caucus are doing our part. We are 
signing off and making sure that everyone understands that the alarms 
are going off. The alarms are going off because every American does not 
have equal access to the ballot box.
  We see States all across this country that are imposing more 
restrictive voting laws. Voter suppression has become the cause of the 
day, and we must do our part. Our part is to pass the John R. Lewis 
Voting Rights Advancement Act and to fully restore the full protections 
of the Voting Rights Act.
  Now, we know that the Supreme Court told Congress that we must come 
up with a modern-day formula. That is exactly what this bill does. It 
has a lookback of 25 years. We are not trying to make Alabama and 
Mississippi be held accountable for what happened in the 1960s and the 
1950s. We are talking about 1997 and moving forward. We are talking 
about recent acts of voter discrimination.
  We know that if we look back just 25 years, even 15 years, we know 
that there will be jurisdiction after jurisdiction that still has 
suppressive voting laws. As long as States are suppressing the right to 
vote, I believe that we have a moral obligation in the Federal 
Government to provide oversight.
  We know that that oversight is critically important, and that is 
exactly what the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will do.
  As I take my seat, I want it to be heard around this Nation that we 
in the Congressional Black Caucus will not rest. We will not rest until 
we pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
  To the gentleman from Illinois, it has been a pleasure talking about 
this most important topic. I know that I have welcomed you and your 
father time and time again to Selma, Alabama, to cross that bridge one 
more time. We know that a very frail John Lewis, with a body riddled 
with cancer, took to that bridge one more time in 2021. He told us to 
never give up, never give in, that ours is a just cause.
  Because of that, we in the Congressional Black Caucus stand tall in 
our commitment to never go back to those days. We need to pass the John 
R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. With the help of the 
Congressional Black Caucus and the gentleman from Illinois, we will do 
just that.
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable 
Congresswoman Terri Sewell for her comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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