North Carolina Case Should Spur Congress to Restore Voting Rights Act

WASHINGTON — Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the Supreme Court yesterday allowed North Carolina’s discriminatory voting changes to take effect for the upcoming November election. These changes were enacted after the Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. In dissent, Justice Ginsburg noted that the changes, which eliminate same-day registration and the counting of out-of-precinct ballots, likely would have been blocked had the VRA been kept intact:

“We all knew that the disastrous Shelby County decision would imperil voters, and North Carolina is a prime example of how politicians are now free to manipulate voting laws and discriminate against voters of color.

Justice Ginsburg’s dissent noted that the North Carolina legislature pushed its voting changes through ‘immediately after the Shelby County decision.’ Pre-Shelby, the legislature knew that this bill—the most restrictive voting legislation in the nation—would have been blocked from taking effect by the Department of Justice. But after the Supreme Court eliminated that protection, legislators rushed to restrict ballot access for minority voters.

This is real-time proof that voters need the kind of protections that the Voting Rights Act provided before the Shelby decision. Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act as soon as possible before the gains of the last 40 years recede any further.”

Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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