Voter's Right's Act Gutted by SCOTUS

Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. are appalled today.  The first is that the Voter's Rights Act was just gutted by the Supreme Court.  The second is that the majority who voted for the gutting of the most important piece of Civil Rights legislation are the same ones who were in the minority on the court decision related to marriage equality (Justices Scalia, Roberts, Alito, and Thomas).  They had the gall to publicly denounce the other justices as lacking judicial restraint.  Look in the mirror men (because no woman on the court voted for this outrage), you are hypocrites.  Your abuse of judicial power is rampant, this year included, this decision included.  You just get apoplectic when you don't get your way.

The court struck down the clause in the Voter's Rights Act that required states that have historically suppressed voting for minority voters to have to get federal permission to change voting.  The first question to ask is has voter suppression been an issue in the past decade?  More so now than ever, if the Republican activity in the 2012 election is an indication of what the future holds.  I find it both frightening and pathetic that an outnumber majority attempts to maintain it's hold on elected power by keeping citizens from voting and by gerrymandering voting districts.  These are short term solutions to their problems, but they will be effective for that short term.  The presidency of George W. Bush demonstrated how much damage can be done in a short period of time.  already, less than a week after the decision, states are queuing up to makes changes that are very unlikely to benefit under-represented minorities.

So how to respond?  The first is to ignore Scalia completely.  The man has gotten his way more times than not and he is an inveterate meddler with the will of Congress.   The second is to mitigate the changes that are inevitable coming--we are well on our way to the mid-term elections and it makes sense to try to get out the vote starting now.