By Jon Cassidy 7/17/2013
This article originally appeared on watchdog.org.
HOUSTON – Two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to the “pre-clearance” requirements of the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Department of Justice is back in court trying to assert federal control over a Texas election. Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez on Wednesday asked a three-judge federal court in Washington, D.C., to set the terms and date of an election for trustees of the Beaumont Independent School District.....
The Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, eliminating the requirement that certain covered jurisdictions prove in advance that changes to voting law are nondiscriminatory.
Effectively, at least for now, the ruling ends federal oversight of Southern elections unless the government can prove discrimination. The ruling was well-received by local-control advocates in Beaumont, where a group of reformers has been trying to win seats on the board of a district engulfed in scandal.......
The Justice Department doesn’t offer a reason why it should be a federal court interpreting state law. It even concedes that “Texas law may permit a state court to order a special election…” Instead, Perez makes a generic appeal to the federal court’s “inherent equitable authority” to settle the matter....To Read More.....
No comments:
Post a Comment