Posted: October 31st, 2022

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Voting Rights Act of 1965

hakaniglezz

Oct 30, 2022, 10:18 AM

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It is worth 150 points. This assignment will not be accepted late.

Instructions: You will analyze one law (select from the law list below) through the lens of one content area studied in this course (from the content area list below). You will discuss how that content area impacted or shaped your chosen law and/or how the law impacted your selected content area. Instructions: You will examine one law (choose from the list below) through the lens of one of the content areas covered in this course (from the content area list below). You will discuss how that content area influenced or shaped your chosen law, as well as how the law influenced your chosen content area.

For example, if you choose the Civil Rights Act (1964) and interest groups, you will discuss specific interest groups, what they did, and how their actions impacted the Civil Rights Act. Be careful to make the act the focus of your work.

Format:

Your paper must be in APA format – double spaced, 12pt. Times New Roman font.

It must have APA in-text citations.

It must have a minimum of 2 scholarly, peer-reviewed articles from the library. You want to start researching now!

It needs to have an APA title page, a reference page, and it must be a minimum of 350 words in length.

Choose your law from this list:

Law List

Stolen Valor Act of 2005

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Controlled Substance Act of 1970

Affordable Care Act of 2010

Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Violence Against Women Act of 1994

Defense of Marriage Act of 1996

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002

Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990

Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990

Judiciary Act of 1789

***If there is a different law you would like to use, you must first contact me for approval.***

Choose one content area from this list:

Content Area List

Federalism

Checks and Balances

Separation of powers

Interest groups

Media

Judicial review

Voting and elections

Public opinion polling

Political parties
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Short notes:
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a seminal piece of federal legislation in the United States that outlaws racial voting discrimination.  On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law at the height of the civil rights movement, and Congress later amended the Act five times to broaden its protections.  The Act sought to secure the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, particularly in the South, by enforcing the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. According to the United States Department of Justice, the Act is the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the United States. It is also regarded as “one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in American history.”

The act contains a slew of election-related provisions. The act’s “general provisions” guarantee voting rights across the country. Section 2 is a general provision that prohibits state and local governments from enacting voting rules that “result in the denial or abridgement of any citizen’s right to vote on account of race or color” or membership in a language minority group.  Other general provisions specifically prohibit literacy tests and similar devices used to disenfranchise racial minorities in the past. The act also includes “special provisions” that apply only to specific jurisdictions. The Section 5 preclearance requirement, which prohibited certain jurisdictions from implementing any change affecting voting without first receiving confirmation from the United States Attorney General or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that the change does not discriminate against protected minorities, is a key special provision.  In addition, jurisdictions with significant language minority populations are required to provide bilingual ballots and other election materials.

Section 5 and the majority of the other special provisions applied to jurisdictions covered by the “coverage formula” outlined in Section 4. (b). In 1965, Congress created the coverage formula to include jurisdictions that engaged in egregious voting discrimination, and it was updated in 1970 and 1975. The United States Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) that the coverage formula was unconstitutional because it was no longer responsive to current conditions. The court did not overturn Section 5, but it is unenforceable in the absence of a coverage formula.  Following the Shelby decision, jurisdictions that had previously been covered by the coverage formula dramatically increased the rate of voter registration purges. 

The Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee Supreme Court decision in 2021 reinterpreted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, significantly weakening it.
The ruling interpreted Section 2’s “totality of circumstances” language to mean that it does not generally prohibit voting rules that have disparate impact on the groups it seeks to protect, such as a rule blocked under Section 5 before the Court inactivated that section in Shelby County v. Holder. [16] [11] The ruling specifically stated that fears of election fraud could justify such rules, even if there was no evidence that such fraud had occurred in the past or that the new rule would make elections safer. 

According to research, the Act significantly increased voter turnout and registration, particularly among black people
The Act has also been linked to concrete outcomes, such as increased provision of public goods (such as public education) in areas with a higher black population share, and more members of Congress voting for civil rights legislation.