Bill Text: AZ SCM1001 | 2021 | Fifty-fifth Legislature 1st Regular | Introduced
Bill Title: John Lewis Voting Rights Act
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-02-02 - Senate read second time [SCM1001 Detail]
Download: Arizona-2021-SCM1001-Introduced.html
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REFERENCE TITLE: John Lewis Voting Rights Act |
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State of Arizona Senate Fifty-fifth Legislature First Regular Session 2021
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SCM 1001 |
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Introduced by Senator Quezada: Representative Chávez
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A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL
urging the united states congress to pass, and the president of the united states to sign, the john lewis voting rights act.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
To the Congress and President of the United States of America:
Your memorialist respectfully represents:
Whereas, the right to vote is among the most basic and fundamental rights of citizens of the United States and is necessary for the continuance of a free, democratic and representative form of government; and
Whereas, the scope of the voting franchise in the United States has expanded over time, from white, male property owners at the time of the nation's founding to citizens who are at least 18 years of age, regardless of race or sex, today; and
Whereas, the struggle to expand the franchise has been a long and difficult one, with the work of many generations of activists helping to achieve ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870 and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920; and
Whereas, even after the passage of these amendments, many federal and state laws, as well as informal elections practices, had the pernicious effect of barring many Black and indigenous people and other Americans of color from fully exercising their constitutional right to vote; and
Whereas, the Civil Rights Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., Bayard Rustin, John Lewis and Rosa Parks, among others, sought to dismantle Jim Crow laws in the southern states that had restricted the right to vote; and
Whereas, on March 7, 1965, around 600 people, including John Lewis and Amelia Boynton, engaged in a peaceful march in Alabama, planning to go from Selma to Montgomery in support of securing full voting rights for all Americans, regardless of their race; and
Whereas, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, a force of Alabama state troopers, Dallas County Sheriff's deputies and civilian vigilantes brutally attacked the peaceful marchers, leading to the hospitalization of 17 marchers and injuries to 50 others, including Boynton, who was rendered unconscious, and Lewis, whose skull was fractured; and
Whereas, along with other violent incidents, the brutal attack at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, now known as "Bloody Sunday," helped put pressure on the United States Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass and approve the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which helped expand and protect voting rights in the United States for the next 48 years; and
Whereas, vital to the effective operation of the Voting Rights Act are Sections 4(b) and 5, which identify certain jurisdictions with a history of voting rights discrimination and subject them to "preclearance," or federal approval, before changes in their voting laws can actually be enacted; and
Whereas, in 1986, John Lewis was elected to represent Georgia in the United States House of Representatives; and
Whereas, as a member of Congress for the next 33 years, John Lewis continued his fight for social justice, civil rights and voting rights and was widely recognized as the "conscience of the United States Congress"; and
Whereas, in 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, (570 U.S. 529), the United States Supreme Court struck down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act, rendering the preclearance provision in Section 5 effectively toothless; and
Whereas, Representative Lewis declared that with the Shelby County decision, "the Supreme Court has stuck a dagger into the heart of the Voting Rights Act"; and
Whereas, despite the urging of Representative Lewis and others, Congress failed in recent years to pass a bill that would update Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act and bring it into compliance with the Shelby County decision, leaving much of the Voting Rights Act effectively inactive; and
Whereas, on July 17, 2020, Representative John Lewis passed away after serving more than three decades in Congress. He called on American citizens to continue the fight after his death to protect and expand voting rights; and
Whereas, after the passing of Representative Lewis, H.R. 4, legislation in the 116th Congress that would have updated and restored Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, was renamed the "John Lewis Voting Rights Act" in his honor.
Wherefore your memorialist, the Senate of the State of Arizona, the House of Representatives concurring, prays:
1. That the United States Congress pass legislation in the new session of Congress that is similar to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act from the 116th Congress.
2. That the President of the United States sign legislation similar to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
3. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.
