For Whom Shall the Gavel Strike?

Last week, the Supreme Court heard opening oral arguments on overturning portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an act that was designed to protect black voters in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles to voting.  Over the course of the arguments and in the immediate aftermath, a great deal of hyperbole and dramatics were dished out, making it nearly impossible to rationally consider the case and its merits.  As usual, the Supreme Court is in the position to consider the law through the disinterested lens of jurisprudence but it certainly will not end there. 

The law was written and passed in horrible circumstances.  Blacks trying to vote in the southern states met with unprecedented travails to exercise their rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution as U.S. citizens and particularly due to the Fifteenth Amendment, granting black men the right to vote, and the Nineteenth Amendment which granted women the right to vote.  Poll taxes were placed to force out those considered “unworthy” while literacy tests were yet another hurdle to overcome.  This is not to mention the various threats and acts of violence that often characterized the nights leading up to the vote.  At the time, Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS) said, “If there is a single man or woman serving (as a registrar) would cannot think up questions enough to disqualify undesirables, then write Bilbo….But you know…the best way to keep a nigger from voting.  You do it the night before the election.  I don’t have to tell you more than that.  Red-blooded men know what I mean.”   

When considering the backdrop of the law, it is understandable that so many, scarred by the memories of those days, might be reluctant to see it go but eventually, go it must.  First of all, we must recognize a level of racial equality that would have been unthinkable to those suffering in the Jim Crow South.  That is not to say that we have racial equality but we are closer to it than any time in our history.  As part of the law, southern states are required to get “pre-clearance” of any change to their voting statues.  However, in the last decade, only one law was struck down, making up .03% of all suggested changes to relevant laws of southern states. It would suggest that the sins of the father have not passed down and southern states should hold equal status with other states. 

Furthermore, during oral arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts challenged the Solicitor General Donald Verrilli that the continuation of the law maintains the idea that the South is still more racist than the rest of the country.  While Mr. Verrilli stated that was not the government’s position, it is hard to figure out, then, the rationality of continuing the pre-clearance portion of the law.  Yet, Chief Justice Roberts was not done when he asked Mr. Verrilli if he knew which state has the greatest disparity of blacks and whites voting.  When the Solicitor General said he didn’t, Chief Justice Roberts said it was Massachusetts, which is not covered by the law.  The state with the greatest amount of blacks voting compared to whites was Mississippi, which is covered by the law.   

Again, it needs to be reaffirmed that racism is still alive and well but there are so many political avenues for victims to redress wrongs, the unfettered methods of racist policies are simply not possible today.  During oral arguments, Justice Scalia said that the formation of race-based entitlements, so needed in 1965, is nearly impossible to do away with once the situation has improved by politicians and the political process.  “Even the name of it is wonderful, the Voting Rights Act.  Who’s going to vote against that?”  Throughout world history, foes have had to learn to let go of the past in order to work and build together.  At some point, and perhaps it will not happen until the next generation is in charge, blacks and whites must learn to move beyond the crimes of the past (without forgetting) in order to build and work together.  That cooperation must begin with the elimination of laws such as elements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.