The Supreme Court has opened the floodgates: Less than a year since state legislatures, governors and secretaries of state in both the north and south tried to suppress minority voting via a bagful of dirty tricks, the Supreme Court has gutted the long-standing Voting Rights Act–which has long been lauded as one of the most successful pieces of civil-rights legislation ever enacted in the U.S. Ignoring what happened during the 2012 presidential campaign–remember Florida? Ohio? Pennsylvania?–the Supreme Court thinks that “our country has changed,” we’re post-racial [They’re joking, right?], and that we don’t need to make sure, in advance, that states don’t enact discriminatory voting laws. But the 5-4 Supreme Court majority essentially gives a free pass to any state that wants to do precisely that.. The laws might not stand forever, says the Court’s decision, but what the heck: States can enact them and worry about court challenges later. Great plan. Remember how well that worked for us before the Voting Rights Act?<\/p>\n

That’s my take on it. Here’s how political cartoonists portray the Great Supreme Court Voting Rights Debacle of 2013.<\/p>\n

[cincopa AELArOLhBx_z]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court has opened the floodgates: Less than a year since state legislatures, governors and secretaries of state in both the north and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1176,572,172,573],"tags":[647,900,1486],"yoast_head":"\n