Civil & Human Rights

The filibuster against tyranny in the Texas Lege succeeds!

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Texas state senator Wendy Davis achieved what many people thought was the impossible: she filibustered tyranny in the Texas Lege. The tyrants threw in the towel and gave up around 3:00 a.m. this morning. Dewhurst declares abortion bill dead, blames 'unruly mob: (paragraphs reordered):

DavisDavis’ filibuster had passed the 10-hour mark, and the Fort Worth
Democrat was still going strong, when Republicans were able to stop her
from speaking with a ruling that she had violated the Senate’s
filibuster rules for a third time. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s ruling
shortly after 10 p.m. cleared the way for a simple majority of the
Republican-led body to vote to halt a filibuster that had gained
national attention, including recognition from President Barack Obama.

Dewhurst’s
ruling prompted many in the spectators’ gallery erupted in anger, with
shouts of “Shame!” giving way to sustained chants of “Let her speak!”
All business in the Senate was halted for several minutes until order
could be restored and a large group of spectators ordered to leave the
gallery.

That was nothing compared to the ruling that cut off all debate, leading to a final vote on Senate Bill 5.

State
Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, had appealed the ruling, and upset
Democratic senators rose to make a series of parliamentary inquiries,
working to draw out the debate until the special session ended at
midnight.

Republicans moved to cut off debate, with Sen. Robert
Duncan, D-Lubbock, who was leading the Senate, declined to recognize
several Democrats’ calls to be recognized to speak. Pandemonium
followed.

A filibuster against tyranny in the Texas Lege

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Oh, good golly Miss Molly [Ivins], we sorely miss your wit and wisdom on the Texas Lege today.

Before a packed chamber and gallery, Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis began a
dramatic filibuster Tuesday morning designed to block passage of a
controversial and politically charged anti-abortion bill. Davis' filibuster to stop abortion bill continues:

DavisBecause the special legislative session will end at midnight, the
Fort Worth Democrat could succeed if she continues talking on Senate
Bill 5 without interruption.

Leaders in the GOP-controlled Senate
who want the bill to pass said at mid-afternoon they were considering
invoking a little-used rule to end the filibuster with a vote, a move
that other Republicans had earlier vowed not to use. They planned to let
Davis talk the day out — as long as she stays within the rules for such
speeches, with no leaning on her desk or no pausing or straying off the
subject.

[And no potty breaks.]

There was no immediate indication when the move might take place.

Davis said she intended to talk until midnight.

 

Rep. John Lewis comments on the U.S. Supreme Court

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Civil rights leader and icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who was nearly beaten to death on Bloody Sunday marching for the right to vote, was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC today about the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County. John Lewis: SCOTUS ‘stabbed’ civil rights law ‘in its very heart’:

Georgia Congressman Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights leader for the last five decades, sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to strip a key enforcement mechanism from the Voting Rights Act, enacted nearly a half century ago to protect minority voters.

“What the Supreme Court did today is stab the Voting Rights Act of
1965 in its very heart,” Lewis told Mitchell Tuesday, calling the 5-4
decision to strike down the formula Congress used to determine which
districts require federal oversight of voting rules “a major step back.”

“We may not have people being beaten today, maybe they
are not being denied the right to participate or to register to vote,
they’re not being chased by police dogs or trampled by horses. But in
the 11 states of the old Confederacy and even in some of the states
outside of the South, there’s been a systematic, deliberate attempt to
take us back to another period. These men that voted to strip the Voting
Rights Act of its power, they never stood in unmovable lines.  They
never had to pass a so-called literacy test. It took us almost a hundred
years to get where we are today. So will it take another hundred years
to fix it, to change it?”

Supreme Court ruling green-lights GOP War on Voting

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Well, that didn't take long. Demonstrating just how wrong the Supreme Court was in Shelby County, the state of Texas, a covered jurisdiction with a long and sordid history of minority voter suppression, took the court's opinion as a green-light to engage in unbridled voter suppression.

The National Journal reports, That Was Quick: Texas Moves Forward With Voter ID Law After Supreme Court Ruling:

Just hours after the Supreme Court handed down a ruling
that guts parts of the Voting Rights Act, Texas is moving forward with a
controversial voter ID law that state Attorney General Greg Abbott
hopes to implement right away.

"With today's decision, the state's voter ID law will take effect immediately," Abbott said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. "Redistricting maps passed by the Legislature may also take effect without approval from the federal government."

The Texas law requires voters to show photo identification to vote—a
measure that was blocked by the Justice Department, arguing the law
could discriminate against racial minorities. At the time, Attorney
General Eric Holder called the law a "poll tax."

* * *

Although the Justice Department still maintains the right to approve
voting-rights laws in counties that have historically implemented
discriminatory laws against minorities, Congress now needs to determine
those areas.

Sen. Leahy vows congressional action on the Voting Rights Act

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Steve Benen reports, Leahy vows 'immediate action' on Voting Rights Act:

With the future of the Voting Rights Act back in the hands of lawmakers, it's heartening to see that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) wasted no time this morning in vowing action.

"Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has protected minorities of all
races from discriminatory practices in voting for nearly 50 years, yet
the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the coverage formula
effectively guts the ability of Section 5 to protect voters from
discriminatory practices. I could not disagree more with this result or
the majority's rationale. The Voting Rights Act has been upheld five
times by the Supreme Court on prior occasions, and Section 5 was
reauthorized and signed into law by a Republican President in 2006 after
a thorough and bipartisan process in which Congress overwhelmingly
determined that the law was still vital to protecting minority voting
rights and that the coverage formula determining the jurisdictions to be
covered was still applicable. Several lower court decisions in recent
years have found violations of the Voting Rights Act and evidence of
intentional discrimination in covered jurisdictions. Despite this sound
record, and the weight of history, a narrow majority has decided today
to substitute its own judgment over the exhaustive legislative findings
of Congress.

As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I intend to take immediate
action to ensure that we will have a strong and reconstituted Voting
Rights Act that protects against racial discrimination in voting."