Voting Rights Act of 1965

This coming Thursday, August 6, is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in American history.

Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times in a lengthy exposé, “A Dream Undone,” examines the 50 year GOP campaign to dismantle this landmark piece of legislation. A Dream Undone (excerpts):

[I]n the American South in 1956, not every would-be black voter was an Air Force officer with the wherewithal to call on the local election board; for decades, most had found it effectively impossible to attain the most elemental rights of citizenship. Only about one-quarter of eligible black voters in the South were registered that year, according to the limited records available. By 1959, when Frye went on to become one of the first black graduates of the University of North Carolina law school, that number had changed little. When Frye became a legal adviser to the students running the antisegregation sit-ins at the Greensboro Woolworth’s in 1960, the number remained roughly the same. And when Frye became a deputy United States attorney in the Kennedy administration, it had grown only slightly. By law, the franchise extended to black voters; in practice, it often did not.

What changed this state of affairs was the passage, 50 years ago this month, of the Voting Rights Act. Signed on Aug. 6, 1965, it was meant to correct “a clear and simple wrong,” as Lyndon Johnson said. “Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote.” It eliminated literacy tests and other Jim Crow tactics, and — in a key provision called Section 5 — required North Carolina and six other states with histories of black disenfranchisement to submit any future change in statewide voting law, no matter how small, for approval by federal authorities in Washington. No longer would the states be able to invent clever new ways to suppress the vote. Johnson called the legislation “one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom,” and not without justification. By 1968, just three years after the Voting Rights Act became law, black registration had increased substantially across the South, to 62 percent. Frye himself became a beneficiary of the act that same year when, after a close election, he became the first black state representative to serve in the North Carolina General Assembly since Reconstruction.

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The parties rested their case on Thursday in the Voting Rights Act trial in North Carolina. Closing arguments were made to the Court on Friday morning, and this afternoon. Here are two articles from the Winston-Salem Journal about the close of the trial.

Here is the preview of today’s closing arguments. Closing arguments in voting rights trial set for today:

By about noon, a three-week trial on North Carolina’s election law — one of the most sweeping changes in voting practices in the country since the U.S. Supreme Court dealt what critics consider a blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — will end, and the decision on whether the law discriminates against racial minorities will be left up to a federal judge.

Attorneys on both sides officially rested their cases Thursday. State attorneys rested after calling their sixth witness — Brian Neesby, business systems analyst for the State Board of Elections. Plaintiffs, including the N.C. NAACP, called four rebuttal witnesses, including Allan Lichtman, a political science professor at American University, and Charles Stewart III, a political science professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plaintiffs also called Daphne Ganey, 25, who is from Winston-Salem, and George Bailey, 21, a student at Winston-Salem State University.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder is presiding over the case and will ultimately make the decision later this year.

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I have been a bit remiss in reporting on this case. If you want daily trial updates, you should visit Rick Hasen’s Election Law Blog via the Winston-Salem Journal.

After two weeks of testimony, the Plaintiffs rested their case this week. The state of North Carolina will present its defense beginning Monday. The Winston-Salem Journal reports, Plaintiffs rest case in federal trial over NC voting law:

After two weeks, attorneys representing the N.C. NAACP and other groups rested their case Friday, having called more than 40 witnesses who testified either in court or via video depositions, that North Carolina’s election law is racially discriminatory.

Now, it is the state’s turn to present evidence. Attorneys representing North Carolina and Gov. Pat McCrory called Janet Thornton, an economist, as their first witness. Thomas Farr, one of the attorneys for the state, said they expect to finish presenting evidence by Wednesday.

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The New York Times has reporter Erik Eckholm in Winston-Salem, NC covering this Voting Right Act trial that opened on Monday. Sides Dispute Basis of North Carolina Voting Laws as Trial Contesting Them Opens:

A trial over North Carolina’s voting laws opened in a federal courtroom here on Monday, with civil rights groups and the Justice Department arguing that the state had turned back the clock with sweeping changes to its election laws, while the state said the revisions applied equally to all and left its voting rules well within the national mainstream.

“The history of North Carolina is not on trial here,” said Butch Bowers, a lawyer representing Gov. Pat McCrory, in an opening statement. “We will show that there is no discrimination, intentional or otherwise.”

The plaintiffs in the case said the legislation, enacted in 2013, was deliberately drafted to reduce voting by African-Americans. They say the legacy of past racism in North Carolina, including the social and economic disparities between black and white citizens, is deeply relevant.

The contested measures reduced early voting days, ended same-day registration, ended out-of-precinct voting and halted the preregistration of 16- and 17-year-old high school students. These measures had been adopted in the past 15 years to increase voter participation and were disproportionately used by black, Hispanic and younger voters.

The Republican-dominated state legislature adopted the changes only weeks after the United States Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 when it ended a requirement that election changes in North Carolina and eight other states with a history of racial discrimination in voting be preapproved by federal officials or courts.

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