84R10618 BPG-D

By: Rodríguez, et al. S.C.R. No. 29

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Widely recognized as the most effective civil rights legislation ever enacted, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was used for nearly a half-century to ensure equal access to the ballot box, but the 2013 United States Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder eviscerated its core protections; and

WHEREAS, The heart of the VRA is Section 5, the preclearance provision for jurisdictions with a history and ongoing pattern of discrimination against racial and language minorities; until the Shelby decision, Section 5 required nine states and portions of six others to get preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice or the federal court in the District of Columbia before they could implement any voting changes; the coverage formula to determine which jurisdictions fell under this requirement is contained in Section 4(b) of the act, and in Shelby, the court ruled this formula unconstitutional, rendering Section 5 virtually useless; and

WHEREAS, Chief Justice John Roberts readily acknowledged in Shelby that voting discrimination still exists; nevertheless, the court invalidated the coverage formula on the basis that it had not been updated and no longer reflected current conditions of discrimination; the court left it to Congress to develop, if it so chose, a new coverage formula and other mechanisms to restore to citizens the protections granted under Section 5, namely the ability to stop discriminatory voting changes before their implementation and the requirement to notify citizens of voting changes that could disenfranchise them; and

WHEREAS, In 1982, when President Ronald Reagan signed the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, he described the right to vote as "the crown jewel of American liberties"; Congress has passed every reauthorization and extension of the act with overwhelmingly bipartisan support, and in 2006, its analysis found overwhelming evidence of continuing discrimination, including more than 750 Section 5 objections by the Department of Justice that had resulted in the blocking of some 2,400 attempts at discriminatory voting changes; as a result, Congress concluded that the coverage formula enforced by Section 5 was necessary for at least another 25 years; and

WHEREAS, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cautioned in her dissent to the Shelby ruling that overturning Section 4(b) was tantamount to "throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet"; her warning has been borne out, as at least 10 of the 15 states previously covered in whole or in part by Section 5 have considered new restrictive legislation that would make it harder for minorities to cast a ballot; and

WHEREAS, Texas has a long and continuing history of attempts to exclude Latino, African American, and other underrepresented groups from full participation in politics and governance; between 1982 and 2005, the state earned 107 Section 5 objections to voting policies, among them nearly 100 concerning local laws, which affected counties that are home to over 70 percent of the state's nonwhite voting-age population; in the year and a half preceding the Shelby decision, the Justice Department found that the state's redistricting plans for congressional and state legislative elections violated Section 5, and a federal court concurred, writing that these plans were "enacted with discriminatory purpose"; troubling developments in the wake of Shelby include controversial changes to city council elections in Pasadena, as well as the revival of a redistricting plan for justice of the peace elections in Galveston County, which was previously blocked by the DOJ; and

WHEREAS, In the years following its passage, the Voting Rights Act guaranteed millions of minority citizens the opportunity to make their voices heard by government at the local, state, and federal levels, but this progress is being imperiled; although efforts to narrow the franchise have grown more subtle than in the days of poll taxes and literacy tests, they have by no means ended; all of the rights we enjoy as citizens rest on the fundamental ability to vote, and it is incumbent upon Congress to safeguard access to the ballot by restoring the full force of the Voting Rights Act; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the 84th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to update the Voting Rights Act with a set of modern, flexible protections that stop discrimination, bring transparency to proposed election changes, and hold accountable jurisdictions that discriminate; and, be it further

RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.