The prospects of Democrats passing voting legislation through a narrowly divided Congress are dim. An issue that used to be a source of compromise is now a partisan flashpoint. They are now trying to restore key sections of the Voting rights Act of 1965, a landmark civil-rights-era law that has been diminished over the past decade due to Supreme Court rulings. However, they accept the fact that any bill they pass will likely end up in litigation and eventually back before the Supreme Court.
It was more difficult to build a more durable Voting rights Act when the conservative majority of the high court issued its second major ruling after eight years, reducing the law’s once strong power.
Damon Hewitt (president and executive director, Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights Under Law), said that it felt like a shifting goal post.
For the People Act is a Democratic bill that overhauls elections. This was the focus of months of Congress sparring. Republican senators stopped it from being debated on the chamber’s floors last month.
Separately, Democrats held a marathon of low-key hearings to prepare for votes on a separate measure, The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This bill could be brought to the House floor for a vote in Sept. The bill would allow the courts and Department of Justice to again enforce voting rules changes in areas with a history of electoral discrimination against minority groups. This was a practice that the Supreme Court suspended in 2013.
Democrats believe that the few hearings they held with minimal fanfare will help to build a legislative record that can withstand a court challenge. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday that the process would document “the disgraceful techniques that Republican-led state legislatures use across the country in order to prevent people from voting.”
Republicans deny this criticism, arguing that courts and Democratic administrations selectively enforced law in the past.
