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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: Voting Rights Act

Voting Rights Act stories: 10 news summaries
ANALYSIS

Roberts Labors to Bring Divided Court Together

Chief scores 2 big 8-1 decisions last week, but Supremes still split

Jun 29, 09 7:35 AM CDT
(Newser) - John Roberts told the Senate in 2005 that the Supreme Court was too polarized, and as chief justice he promised to encourage harmony between the court's left and right blocs. Last week he delivered, with two 8-1 decisions on the Voting Rights Act and the strip-search of a 13-year-old girl.... More »

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John Roberts • Voting Rights Act • Chief Justice • strip search • court cases • US Supreme Court

(Newser) - Today’ non-decision by the Supreme Court on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is actually a stern repudiation, Tom Goldstein writes for SCOTUSblog. Reading between the lines, Goldstein surmises that the court will strike down Section 5 when the next challenge comes if Congress does not significantly alter it... More »

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Congress • legislation • Voting Rights Act • US Supreme Court • constitutionality • opinion • racial discrimination • Section 5

(AP) - The Supreme Court ruled narrowly today in a challenge to the Voting Rights Act, exempting a small Texas district from a key provision of the law, but side-stepping the larger constitutional issue. The act requires Southern areas with a history of discrimination to get advance federal approval before changing election... More »

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Valerie Plame • Alaska • lawsuit • Voting Rights Act • US Supreme Court • civil rights movement • special education

Tiny Town's Move May Redefine Voting Rights Act

Provision in 1965 act prevents moving polling station

Mar 28, 09 9:27 AM CDT
(Newser) - A Supreme Court case may soon bring about a momentous change in the nation's voting laws, all because a Texas town of 3,500 moved a polling station three blocks, the Wall Street Journal reports. A local official made the switch to a more convenient location, galled that he needed... More »

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Texas • Voting Rights Act • voting rights • 1960s • US Supreme Court • local election

(AP) - The Supreme Court ruled today that a part of the Voting Rights Act aimed at helping minorities elect their preferred candidates only applies in electoral districts where minorities make up more than half the population, the AP reports. The decision could make it harder for some minority candidates to win... More »

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African Americans • North Carolina • voting • Voting Rights Act • black • US Supreme Court • Scotus

High Court to Hear Challenge to Voting Rights Act

Provision forcing local governments, mainly in South, to clear changes with feds at issue

Jan 9, 09 3:23 PM CST
(Newser) - The US Supreme Court agreed today to hear a case that challenges a central section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act designed to protect minority voters in discriminatory districts, the New York Times reports. Section 5 of the law, which forces many Southern states and select districts elsewhere to get... More »

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John Roberts • Texas • appeal • Austin • Voting Rights Act • US Supreme Court • civil rights movement • racial discrimination

OPINION

An Obama
Win Would Belong to LBJ

Run is confirmation of slow change since
Civil Rights Act

Nov 4, 08 12:02 PM CST
(Newser) - Unless the polls are wrong, the winner of today’s election is clear: Lyndon Baines Johnson. “We have lost the South for a generation,” Johnson said when he signed the Civil Rights Act. Well, “for that generation, time’s up,” Richard Cohen writes in the More »

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Barack Obama • Lyndon Johnson • race relations • Voting Rights Act • Obama 2008 • racial equality • Election 2008

OPINION

After 43 Years, LBJ's Dream Is Realized Tonight

Voting Rights Act paved the way for Obama's candidacy, writes Caro

Aug 28, 08 10:12 AM CDT
(Newser) - As Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination tonight, author Robert A. Caro will be remembering another speech: Lyndon Johnson's 1965 address to Congress urging the passage of the Voting Rights Act. In that speech, which reduced Martin Luther King to tears, LBJ "adopted the great anthem of the civil... More »

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Barack Obama • Lyndon Johnson • Voting Rights Act • civil rights • voting rights • Martin Luther King Jr. • civil rights movement

Some Blacks Think Obama Could Threaten Progress

Experts fear success could close discussion

Aug 25, 08 8:43 AM CDT
(Newser) - Despite being a landmark in black American history, Barack Obama’s pending nomination could stall civil rights progress, some blacks say, because his success could fuel an argument that racial divisions have been healed, the New York Times reports. The danger is “that we declare victory,” a sociologist... More »

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Barack Obama • African Americans • race relations • Voting Rights Act • Civil Rights Act • civil rights • African-Americans

Prosecutors Reopen Civil Rights Case

Alabama indicts ex-state trooper
in 1965 murder

May 11, 07 4:39 PM CDT
(Newser) - Alabama prosecutors have reopened a decades-old murder case that helped spark the seminal Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. James Bonard Fowler, 73, a former state trooper, turned himself in yesterday after being indicted the 1965 murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson, whom prosecutors say he... More »

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Jimmie Lee Jackson • James Bonard Fowler • Alabama • Selma to Montgomery • Voting Rights Act • civil rights

10 Stories


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