ipl-logo

Voting Rights Act Of 1965 Section 4 Summary

620 Words3 Pages

Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 creates a coverage formula for determining which states and political subdivisions will be subject to additional scrutiny. The formula is based on the previous use of racially discriminatory practices and low voter registration or turnout. Section 5 of the Voting Rights act of 1965 holds that no jurisdiction that qualifies under the coverage formula can implement any changes in voting procedures until the changes are approved by the U.S. Justice Department or a federal court. Under Section 5 all states must obtain federal permission before enacting any law related to voting. (Con Law Textbook, pg. 725) Chief Justice Roberts rejected Sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act because he believed that they were unconstitutional …show more content…

The constraints that Section 4 places on certain states made since back in the 1960s but they don’t make any sense now and they represent an unconstitutional violation of the power to regulate elections that the Constitution reserves for the states. Justice Roberts goes on to say that “the Fifteenth Amendment commands that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race or color, and it gives Congress the power to enforce that command. The Amendment is not designed to punish for the past; its purpose is to ensure a better future. To serve that purpose, Congress (if it is to divide the States) must identify those jurisdictions to be singled out on a basis that makes sense in light of current conditions. It cannot rely simply on the past.” (Con Law Textbook, pg. 728) Justice Roberts is saying that Congress could have and should have updated the coverage formula when it reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 2006 but they failed to do so. As a result, the Court declared Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act to be

Show More
Related

Shelby County V. Holder Case Study

794 Words | 4 Pages

Constitution place on state’s power to determine voter qualifications? Those limitations start with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act prohibits racial discrimination when voting in the local, state, and federal levels. “Section 2, which closely followed the language of the 15th amendment, applied a nationwide prohibition of the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of race or color” (ourdocuments.gov). Not since the reconstruction period after the civil war had there been such a “significant statutory change in the relationship between the Federal and state governments” (ourdocuments.gov).

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Gerrymandering

813 Words | 4 Pages

This act, passed by the 89th Congress, is considered one of the most important Civil Rights acts ever passed. This bill allowed anyone, no matter what race, to vote freely, without worrying about being accosted of claims of illiteracy, insufficient education, etc… This contributed to the controversy in Texas, because the way voting districts were drawn at the time, using Stacked Vote gerrymandering, meant that districts were often times drawn based on race. Before the act was passed; this led to the white population in the districts—Remember this was during the Civil Rights Era—often times preventing the, “Colored Population”, from voting, citing reasons such as; Lack of Knowledge, and Illiteracy. This acts passing stopped all of that. The acts passing created another problem.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Texas Voter ID Law

1128 Words | 5 Pages

In todays current society, the Federal Constitution provides that the times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives is prescribed in each state by the state legislature. Congress is allowed to grant power by holding elections, which is where power is matched, by the state to control over the election process for state offices. Overall, state qualifications to vote are set by the states, subject to certain restrictions in the Constitution and its Amendments and the authority of the federal government in enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The authority has limits based in the Constitution and its Amendments. States may not use certain factors in determining qualification.

Read More

Examples Of Jim Crow Laws In To Kill A Mockingbird

855 Words | 4 Pages

While a literacy test, elaborate registration systems, and a poll tax do not appear to be meant to eliminate a race from voting, these factors were designed to exclude colored voters, and it was successful. For example, in Mississippi, fewer than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting- age African Americans were registered after 1890. (Whites Only; Jim Crow in America). The Jim Crow laws also violated the fourteenth amendment. “, Anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen and that “, no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the united States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person the equal protection of the law”.

Read More

Dbq Essay On Reconstruction

1043 Words | 5 Pages

Republicans were concerned that as the states were re-admitted to the union they would disregard many of these new amendments and acts, and withdraw black suffrage. They decided to add the fifteenth amendment, which denied the states the right to prohibit anyone from voting “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” However, this did not include gender which upset many feminists at the time. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was one of the final congressional reconstruction

Read More

Pros And Cons Of The Fifteenth Amendment

747 Words | 3 Pages

It was ruled that section 4(b) exceeded Congress’s rights to practice the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. It was ruled that the coverage formula went against the federalist ways and conflicted with making all states equal in power. The Court made a point that Congress must rule with facts of the present day and not

Read More

Was Reconstruction A Success Or Failure Essay

810 Words | 4 Pages

The Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified February 3, 1870, states that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” By dodging around the Amendment, people still found ways to disclude African Americans from voting. According to Document L, “Denying black men the right to vote through legal maneuvering and violence was a first step in taking away their civil rights. Beginning in 1890s, southern states enacted literacy tests... The laws proved very effective.

Read More

Dbq Civil Rights Act Of 1965

861 Words | 4 Pages

African American men faced the hurdles of literacy tests and poll taxes, which, although they possessed the legal right to vote, served as significant obstacles, greatly impeding their ability to participate in the electoral process. Document 5 -. Portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 state that, “No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” This act removed the power of the states to deny voting rights to their citizens based on race, representing a significant milestone in the march toward equality. States made efforts to maintain segregation by unfairly arresting individuals solely based on their race.

Read More

How Did Jim Crow Laws Affect African Americans

824 Words | 4 Pages

Significant amounts of people today often do not comprehend how recently African-Americans truly gained the right to vote. About fifty-some years ago, less than one generation, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act; a landmark piece of federal legislation. The Voting Rights Act help African-Americans across the nation to overcome the legal barriers, such as the racially discriminatory Jim Crow Laws, that often prevented them from exercising their right to vote—which is guaranteed under the fifteen amendment, in national, state, and local elections. More specially, from the ratification of the fifteen amendment to the passage and signing of the Voting Rights Act, African-Americans, as well as other minority groups, endure countless

Read More

15 Amendment Research Paper

563 Words | 3 Pages

The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the

Read More

Justin Levitt's The Truth About Voter Fraud

1258 Words | 6 Pages

The Voting Rights Act, signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson, made it explicitly clear that denying the right to vote based on race or color was illegal. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act states “no voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied… to deny or abridge the right of any citizen… to vote on account of race or color” (CITE). Voting is a right, not a privilege, and nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than the right to vote. Therefore, the creation of Voter Identification laws takes this country back to a time where voting was a privilege held by a select few— white men— rather than ta right bestowed on the entire nation.

Read More

Voting Rights Act Of 1965 Research Paper

466 Words | 2 Pages

This was the act that helped enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution. Before the Voter Rights Act African Americans, especially those living in the deep south, faced plenty of difficulties to voting which can include "poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions to deny them the right to vote. " They were also faced with other non- legal issues such as harassment and violence when they attempted to vote. Because of everything that was going on at this time, there were few to none African American voters as well as any national or local political power. One event that specifically highlighted the attention of voting matters was the mass murder of voting rights activist in Mississippi, and the attack of non-violent marchers in Alabama.

Read More

Disastrous Effects Of Reconstruction

933 Words | 4 Pages

After the war, though the Fourteenth Amendment granted African Americans the rights of citizenship, it didn’t automatically translate into the ability to vote, and normally, after the war, African Americans found themselves systematically turned away from state polling places. And though, to combat said problem, the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, allowing African Americans to vote no matter their race, color, or previous servitude, some states still found a way to circumvent the Constitution and prevent those of color from voting. That way being the “implication” of poll taxes, which required African Americans to pay to vote, literacy tests, which required the African Americans to be ‘literate” as well as serving as a way to “prove intelligence,” the grandfather clause, which kept descendants of slaves out of elections, unless it could be proved that one's grandfather had voted, and intimidation—-all used to prevent African Americans from

Read More

Essay On The Voting Rights Act Of 1965

1821 Words | 8 Pages

Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.

Read More

Effect Of Nutrition On Brain Memory

1021 Words | 5 Pages

Nutrition's effect on brain function -Memory There is no denying of the fact that brain is the most important organ of the body. It is the only organ that works round the clock 24/7 and takes care of the important functions such as memory, concentration, focus, thoughts, movements, senses, breathing and much more. Considering the non-stop functioning of the brain, it requires a constant supply of fuel in the form of the nutritional food that we eat. It won’t be wrong to say that what we eat directly affects the main functions of the brain including the memory.

Read More

More about Voting Rights Act Of 1965 Section 4 Summary

Related Topics

Open Document