Bill Text: TX SCR29 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging Congress to update Voting Rights Act provisions to protect against voter discrimination.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-03-23 - Referred to State Affairs [SCR29 Detail]
Download: Texas-2015-SCR29-Introduced.html
| 84R10618 BPG-D | ||
| By: Rodríguez, et al. | S.C.R. No. 29 | |
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| WHEREAS, Widely recognized as the most effective civil rights | ||
| legislation ever enacted, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was used for | ||
| nearly a half-century to ensure equal access to the ballot box, but | ||
| the 2013 United States Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. | ||
| Holder eviscerated its core protections; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The heart of the VRA is Section 5, the preclearance | ||
| provision for jurisdictions with a history and ongoing pattern of | ||
| discrimination against racial and language minorities; until the | ||
| Shelby decision, Section 5 required nine states and portions of six | ||
| others to get preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice or | ||
| the federal court in the District of Columbia before they could | ||
| implement any voting changes; the coverage formula to determine | ||
| which jurisdictions fell under this requirement is contained in | ||
| Section 4(b) of the act, and in Shelby, the court ruled this formula | ||
| unconstitutional, rendering Section 5 virtually useless; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Chief Justice John Roberts readily acknowledged in | ||
| Shelby that voting discrimination still exists; nevertheless, the | ||
| court invalidated the coverage formula on the basis that it had not | ||
| been updated and no longer reflected current conditions of | ||
| discrimination; the court left it to Congress to develop, if it so | ||
| chose, a new coverage formula and other mechanisms to restore to | ||
| citizens the protections granted under Section 5, namely the | ||
| ability to stop discriminatory voting changes before their | ||
| implementation and the requirement to notify citizens of voting | ||
| changes that could disenfranchise them; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In 1982, when President Ronald Reagan signed the | ||
| reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, he described the right to | ||
| vote as "the crown jewel of American liberties"; Congress has | ||
| passed every reauthorization and extension of the act with | ||
| overwhelmingly bipartisan support, and in 2006, its analysis found | ||
| overwhelming evidence of continuing discrimination, including more | ||
| than 750 Section 5 objections by the Department of Justice that had | ||
| resulted in the blocking of some 2,400 attempts at discriminatory | ||
| voting changes; as a result, Congress concluded that the coverage | ||
| formula enforced by Section 5 was necessary for at least another 25 | ||
| years; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cautioned in her dissent | ||
| to the Shelby ruling that overturning Section 4(b) was tantamount | ||
| to "throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not | ||
| getting wet"; her warning has been borne out, as at least 10 of the | ||
| 15 states previously covered in whole or in part by Section 5 have | ||
| considered new restrictive legislation that would make it harder | ||
| for minorities to cast a ballot; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Texas has a long and continuing history of attempts | ||
| to exclude Latino, African American, and other underrepresented | ||
| groups from full participation in politics and governance; between | ||
| 1982 and 2005, the state earned 107 Section 5 objections to voting | ||
| policies, among them nearly 100 concerning local laws, which | ||
| affected counties that are home to over 70 percent of the state's | ||
| nonwhite voting-age population; in the year and a half preceding | ||
| the Shelby decision, the Justice Department found that the state's | ||
| redistricting plans for congressional and state legislative | ||
| elections violated Section 5, and a federal court concurred, | ||
| writing that these plans were "enacted with discriminatory | ||
| purpose"; troubling developments in the wake of Shelby include | ||
| controversial changes to city council elections in Pasadena, as | ||
| well as the revival of a redistricting plan for justice of the peace | ||
| elections in Galveston County, which was previously blocked by the | ||
| DOJ; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In the years following its passage, the Voting | ||
| Rights Act guaranteed millions of minority citizens the opportunity | ||
| to make their voices heard by government at the local, state, and | ||
| federal levels, but this progress is being imperiled; although | ||
| efforts to narrow the franchise have grown more subtle than in the | ||
| days of poll taxes and literacy tests, they have by no means ended; | ||
| all of the rights we enjoy as citizens rest on the fundamental | ||
| ability to vote, and it is incumbent upon Congress to safeguard | ||
| access to the ballot by restoring the full force of the Voting | ||
| Rights Act; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the 84th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
| hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to update the | ||
| Voting Rights Act with a set of modern, flexible protections that | ||
| stop discrimination, bring transparency to proposed election | ||
| changes, and hold accountable jurisdictions that discriminate; | ||
| and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
| copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
| the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
| Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the | ||
| members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that | ||
| this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
| memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. | ||
