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Texas Voter Laws Need Pre-Approval, Justice Dept. Says

Colin Hale |
July 25, 2013 | 10:42 a.m. PDT

Executive Producer

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder/Flickr Creative Commons
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder/Flickr Creative Commons
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Justice Department would ask a federal court to require Texas to get permission to change its voting laws for the next ten years.

Holder announced the decision during a speech in Philadelphia to the National Urban League, a civil rights organization. Holder said that his office "believe[s] that the State of Texas should be required to go through a preclearance process whenever it changes its voting laws and practices."

"Even as Congress considers updates to the Voting Rights Act in light of the Court's ruling, we plan, in the meantime... to ensure that the voting rights of all American citizens are protected."

The decision by Holder's department follows last month's Supreme Court decision to strike down the portion of the Voting Rights Act of 196 that defined the areas in the country that were required to "preclear" any changes to its voting laws. While "preclearances" are still allowed under the VRA, the difference is that plaintiffs have to now prove that a state's changes are discriminatory, not the other way around.

Since the decision, The Obama administration has been attempting to find a work-around the new changes and continue to ppose voting discrimination based on race. Holder said the decision to first target Texas was based on "evidence of discriminatory practices presented in a restricting case last year," according to the U.S. News & World Report.

Prior to the Supreme Court's decision, the Justice Department had been using "preclearances" to block laws that were viewed as discriminatory, including the proposed plan by Texas officials to redraw congressional district lines following the 2010 U.S. Census.  

The Justice Department said that the proposed plan had too few black and Hispanic districts, according to the Chicago Tribune.  Texas officials, including state Attorney General Greg Abbott, said that the state would begin to implement the redistricting plan immediately.

In response, the Justice Department plans to now support pending lawsuits against the redistricting plan in federal court. If the federal court sides with the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the Justice Department would ask that Texas be put back in the preclearance process.

Reach Executive Producer Colin Hale here.  Follow him on Twitter.



 

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