News

High Court Ruling Leaves Voting Rights Act Intact

by MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press , June 23, 2009

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WASHINGTON, D.C.

 

The Voting Rights Act, the government's chief weapon against racial discrimination at polling places since the 1960s, survived a Supreme Court challenge Monday in a ruling that nevertheless warned of serious constitutional questions posed by part of the law.

 

Major civil rights groups and other defenders of the landmark law breathed a sigh of relief when the court ruled narrowly in favor of a small Texas governing authority while sidestepping the larger constitutional issue.

 

After argument in late April, it appeared the court’s conservatives could have a majority to strike down part of the law as unnecessary in an era marked by the election of the first Black president.

 

But with only one justice in dissent, the court avoided the major questions raised over the section of the voting law that requires all or parts of 16 states mainly in the South and with a history of discrimination in voting to get Justice Department approval before making changes in the way elections are conducted.

 

The court said that the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 in Austin, Texas, could apply to opt out of the advance approval requirement, reversing a lower federal court that ruled it could not. The district appears to meet the requirements to bail out, although the high court did not pass judgment Monday on that point.

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