At this hour AFJ President Nan Aron is scheduled to address a rally in front of the Supreme Court in support of the Voting Rights Act. This is the text of her remarks:
This is an extraordinarily important day for our country.
The fate of one of the most vital tools ever created for political and social
justice in America is being argued inside this Court.
At stake are the fundamental rights of millions of people
of color, but also the integrity of our democracy and our willingness as a
society to fulfill the promise of equality for every American.
The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to correct the
blatant discrimination that prevented millions of Americans from exercising the
most fundamental right in a democracy – the right to vote and choose the people
who make our laws.
Today, in 2013, much has changed, but much remains to be
done. No one who watched the concerted efforts to disenfranchise people of
color in the last election can doubt that simple fact. The job is not yet done.
We have not yet reached the end of the road.
Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act must continue as a
viable tool for the protection of fundamental rights. It must remain in place
if we are to preserve the gains made in the decades since the law was passed.
Without it, we will inevitably slide backward into an era of deliberate voter
suppression.
History has shown that the great power of this law is
that it prevents discrimination from occurring in the first place. It doesn’t
rely on challenges after elections have already occurred, when it’s too late.
It not only stops discriminatory plans from taking effect, it deters them from
being proposed at all.
Time and again during the 2012 election, we saw the value
of the Voting Rights Act in action – in Texas, and Florida, and South Carolina,
and Alabama. The Court needs to
understand that with the job half done and threats to the right to vote still
fresh in our memories from the last election, Section 5 must be preserved.
Congress recognized this in 2006 when, backed by enormous
amounts of evidence, it reauthorized the law by a unanimous vote in the Senate
and by a vote of 390-33 in the House. The Constitution and, in particular, the
15th Amendment, say that it is the job of Congress to figure out how to prevent
racial discrimination in voting. It would be an egregious step by this Court to
shove aside Congress’ judgment and substitute its own.
There is an unspoken covenant between the Court and the
American people that it will respect the great American journey toward a
better, more just society. That it will take us forward, not backward. No
modern Court has ever struck down a cornerstone civil rights law. And, with the whole world watching, it should not -- and must not -- happen now.
We all wish we lived in a world where Section 5 is no
longer necessary, but we are not there yet. To dismantle this tool for justice
at a time when concerted efforts to suppress voting and disenfranchise people
of color are on the upswing would represent a willful denial of the hard
realities of life in America in 2013.
Ironically, today a statue honoring Rosa Parks is being
dedicated in the Capitol Building. On the same day we erect a monument to
hard-won rights, we should not contemplate the dismantling of the very law that
protects those rights.
Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act must be preserved and
this case must be won. Thank you.
Find out more about why we still need the Voting Rights Act
Later this afternoon on Justice Watch: Four legal scholars analyze today's oral arguments.
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