Voting Rights Act Section 2

Lawmakers and election administrators in these jurisdictions would have correspondingly strong ex ante incen tives to safeguard minority voting rights.

Voting rights act section 2. Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the. Since section 2 of the voting rights act purports to prohibit state action that has a racially disproportionate result or effect disparate impact but did not stem from a racially. All citizens of the united states who are otherwise qualified by law to vote at any election by the people in any state territory district county city parish township school district municipality or other territorial subdivision shall be entitled and allowed to vote at all such elections without distinction of race color or previous condition of servitude.

Although at large voting is becoming rarer and rarer in part due to the advocacy of ldf and other civil rights organizations such discriminatory election systems remain in some places in our. So the federal government and civil rights plaintiffs have used section 2 as their best remaining protection. On march 14 2008 the united states filed a complaint alleging violations of section 2 of the voting rights act that the at large methods of electing the board dilutes the voting strength of african american citizens.

Section 2 of the voting rights act of 1965 prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race color or membership in one of the language minority groups identified in section 4 f 2 of the act. 1973 prohibits drawing election districts in ways that improperly dilute minorities voting power. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on august 6 1965 and congress later amended the act five times to expand its protections.

Though the amend ments are not entirely clear on this point it appears they would replace the traditional four prong test for a preliminary injunction with a simple weighing of relative. Since the passage of the voting rights act in 1965 numerous at large systems have been struck down under section 2 of the voting rights act. Most of the cases arising under section 2 since its enactment involved challenges to at large election schemes but the section s prohibition against discrimination in voting applies nationwide to any voting standard practice or procedure that results in the denial or.

It was signed into law by president lyndon b. Any constitution law custom usage or regulation of any state or territory or by or under its authority. Section 2 of the vra codified at 42 u s c.

On march 21 2008 the court enter the consent decree. This prohibition applies to states counties cities school districts and any other governmental unit that holds elections.