President Barack Obama speaks in the South Court Auditorium in the… He also is a co-sponsor of a constitutional amendment to overturn a disastrous 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United which opened the floodgates to unlimited super PAC spending. “But more than two years after the Supreme Court significantly undermined one of our nation’s most important and successful civil rights statutes, Congress has yet to restore the full power of the Voting Rights Act”.
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In a civil rights speech in Selma, Ala.in March, Obama called the Voting RIghts Act “one of the crowning achievements of our democracy”.
The teleconference takes place as Republican presidential candidates gather in Cleveland for their first primary debate.
“Civil and human rights are fundamentally American and morally correct for today”, Sweet-Love said.
Obama further emphasized that Congress, state legislators, businesses, universities and citizens are all responsible for maintaining and expanding voting rights. But caution also is in order, as the right to vote recently has been eroded by state laws inspired by an unfounded fear of voter fraud, including in Kansas.
And rather than try to keep Kobach in check, the Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback just empowered him to prosecute voter fraud himself.
“There are no longer barking dogs or police beating elders or people crossing bridges to bring attention to this matter”, said Mary Carmen Munoz, operations manager of Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development. “There are really strong feelings that we don’t need it, that the work is done and others who feel a moral imperative to continue it”.
Although a victory for Democrats and minority rights groups, the decision wasn’t as sweeping as a ruling last year by lower court that compared the Texas law to old poll taxes that forced minorities to pay to vote.
Lynch wondered during the video conference, if the federal appeals court were actually looking at the calendar when they decided to release their decision the day before the 50 anniversary of the signing into law of the Voting Rights Act.
A landmark piece of legislation, the Voting Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
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Would these felons get their voting rights restored immediately after being released from prison or are we maintaining restrictions that they must wait a certain number of years before being able to vote? “The Republican voter ID law is discriminatory”, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement.
