‘ Voting Rights Act 1965 Section 5 Ruled Unconstitutional in 2013 by Congress ‘

#AceHistory2ResearchNews – September 22 – The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of American federal legislation that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. President Lyndon B.

‘ Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King Jnr ‘
Bill of Rights

Johnson signed the Act into law (pictured) during the height of the Civil Rights Movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended it five times.

‘ Section Two ‘   

The Act allowed for a mass enfranchisement of racial minorities across the country, especially in the South. Section 2 of the Act prohibits state and local governments from imposing any voting law that has a discriminatory effect on racial or language minorities, and other provisions specifically ban literacy-tests and similar discriminatory devices.

‘ Section Five Covered Jurisdiction’s ‘

Some provisions apply only to jurisdictions covered by the Act’s “coverage formula”, which was designed to encompass jurisdictions that engaged in egregious voting discrimination.

Chiefly, Section 5 prohibits these jurisdictions from changing their election practices without first receiving approval from the federal government that the change is not discriminatory.

In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down the coverage formula as unconstitutional, reasoning that it no longer responded to current conditions.

Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. ___(2013), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Section 5, which requires certain states and local governments to obtain federal pre-clearance before implementing any changes to their voting laws or practices; and Section 4(b), which contains the coverage formula that determines which jurisdictions are subjected to pre-clearance based on their histories of discrimination in voting.

On June 25, 2013, the Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that Section 4(b) is unconstitutional because the coverage formula is based on data over 40 years old, making it no longer responsive to current needs and therefore an impermissible burden on the constitutional principles of federalism and equal sovereignty of the states.

The Court did not strike down Section 5, but without Section 4(b), no jurisdiction will be subject to Section 5 pre-clearance unless Congress enacts a new coverage formula.

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Related articles

• THEORY & ADVOCACY: New Article on Restrictive Voting Laws
• Voting Rights Act of 1965 – Now Weaker due to Supreme Court 2013 Ruling
• How Supreme Court rulings encourage racial discrimination
• Why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act Still Matters

#american, #civil-rights-movement, #congress, #jurisdications, #literacy-tests, #president-lyndon-b-johnson, #racial, #the-voting-rights-act-1965

Fifteen Years ago `NATO ' invaded ` Yugoslavia ' and left their Mark and their Memories '

#AceHistory2Research – YUGOSLAVIA – 22 March – Fifteen years after NATO invaded Yugoslavia, memories of the 78-day bombing are still haunting present-day Serbia. Above all, people ask why the alliance brought them death and destruction. RT presents its documentary ‘Zashto?’ from the war-torn country.

http://img.rt.com/files/news/23/fd/90/00/1443125_yt_zashto_promo__480p.mp4?event=download

On March 24, 1999, when NATO started its ruthless bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, Jelena Milincic was a student at the University of Belgrade, and just 18 years old.

When the first strikes hit in the evening, she, her mother, sister, and best friend cowered under a table.

Remembering this now, 15 years later, they laugh.

Back then, it was terrifying.

For the next three months, the relentless air-strikes became part of Jelena’s – and many other people’s – lives.

“In ’99, I was 16 and I was studying in a theatre school. I had no idea that a country in central Europe was being bombed for three months,” RT America journalist Anissa Naouai says in the film.

Operation Allied Force, as it was code-named, lasted until June 10, 1999. Tragically, NATO’s aggression resulted in more than 2,000 civilian deaths, including 88 children.

The authors of ‘Zashto?’ – which means “Why?” in English – Serbian Jelena Milincic and American Anissa Naouai traveled through former Yugoslavia to Belgrade, Kosovo, and Montenegro. They spoke to people who endured the atrocities and horrors of the war and lost loved ones.

“We were just looking for important, heartfelt stories. Serbia is not a very large country, and everywhere we went we found people who were personally affected by the bombings, and feel the war’s impact to this day,” said Milincic, a Serbian journalist.

“Our goal was to show the aspects of the conflict that you did not see in the news, the stories of civilians affected by the events,” Milincic added.

To watch the documentary ‘Zashto?’ tune in to RT on March 24.

RT (Exclusive) 1443125_yt_zashto_promo__480p (1).mp4
http://img.rt.com/files/news/23/fd/90/00/1443125_yt_zashto_promo__4

http://on.rt.com/jc53sm

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#american, #nato, #rt, #serbian, #yugoslavia