Hasen: "Pass the VRA Bailout Amendment"

Roll Call has published my guest commentary (FREE access, reprinted with permission), which begins:

This week the House considers H.R. 9, a bill that renews expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The Senate is expected to take up parallel legislation later this summer, after it emerges from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Members of the House should vote to renew the act, but they also should vote for an amendment to be offered by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) to create what I have termed "proactive bailout." The amendment strengthens the act by helping to insulate the renewed VRA against inevitable constitutional challenge.

It concludes:

This proposal does not gut the VRA, as some have suggested. It simply provides a way of ensuring that those jurisdictions that remain covered by Section 5 are the ones where there is still a danger of racial discrimination by the government in voting. That assurance could convince more conservative justices, particularly Kennedy, who could well be the swing vote on the constitutionality of VRA renewal, that Congress has made efforts to make sure that the law does not exceed Congressional power.

I know some Members of Congress, particularly Democrats, might be suspicious of an amendment offered by a conservative Southern Republican such as Westmoreland. I understand the concern. But Members of Congress should look past this concern. Passing H.R. 9 as is, without any attempt by Congress to recognize that 2006 is not 1965, could doom the provisions before the Supreme Court. And if the court strikes down a renewed VRA, other important civil rights laws could follow as well.

Meanwhile, the newspaper reports (paid subscription required): "Leadership sources said they expect those two amendments [Norwood and Westmoreland] again will be made in order when the Rules Committee meets this week to reconsider the VRA. Those sources also predicted both amendments would fail -- a development that should ensure that the VRA retains the support of Democrats, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus."

Posted by Rick Hasen at July 11, 2006 07:27 AM