Voting Rights Act Decision
Show 1409

It’s been hailed as one of the most significant steps in civil rights history – second only, some say, to Brown v. Board of Education.

This edition of Due Process examines the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and specifically Section 5, the portion of the act at the center of the legal showdown. Initially created to help ease the vestiges of past discrimination against African Americans at the polls, we look at the questions that the Justices decided to sidestep, whether it remains necessary and even more important, if it is constitutional.

Sandra King reports on the 8-1 decision, while Raymond Brown hosts an in-studio debate featuring Eric Jaso, former Assistant U.S. Attorney and Board member of The Federalist Society of New Jersey; Myrna Perez, counsel for The Brennan Center for whom she submitted a friend of the court brief in the case; and DeForest “Buster” Soaries, former chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.