Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act Upheld in Its Application to Local Governments

The Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One doesn't like
having to get approval from the federal government for changes in its
voting policy, in order to prevent racial discrimination; it says that
everything's fine and dandy in Northwest Austin. The requirement can be
found in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, extended in 2006.<br>
<br>
NAMUDNO, which apparently doesn't think the Voting Rights Act should
have been extended, because racial discrimination is a thing of the
past, sued the United States in 2006, trying to have itself exempted
from this provision or have Section 5 declared unconstitutional.
Yesterday it lost. A three-judge panel of the federal District Court of the District of
Columbia  <a href="https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2006cv1384-133&quot; target="”_blank”">found
the requirement constitutional</a> (it's a 121-page decision; this is
serious business, and it makes you wonder who all was backing the
utility district, which services about 3,500 people, according to <a href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gyJrgu873K78Fok2q5jxp09eeoYwD91040VG…; target="”_blank”">an
AP article</a>).<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/449">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>
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The suit will supposedly be on the Supreme Court docket this summer. And the outcome is uncertain.
<br><br>
Here's <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-blum15sep15,0,7237682.story?c…; target="”_blank”">a
short op-ed piece</a> by an American Enterprise Institute voting rights
expert, Edward Blum, explaining the political opposition to Article 5.
According to <a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid:559094&quot; target="”_blank”">an
article</a> in the Austin <span>Chronicle,
</span>Blum helped convince NAMUDNO to file the suit, along with
Gregory Coleman, former Texas Solicitor General and former clerk to Justice
Clarence Thomas, who offered his services pro bono. Many organizations opposed
to racial discrimination supported the U.S. government.<br>
<br>
Also take a look at <a href="http://communities.justicetalking.org/blogs/day28/archive/2008/05/29/ch…; target="”_blank”">this discussion</a> of this week's U.S. Supreme Court decision in <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/07-77.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">Riley v. Kennedy</a>, also concerning the application of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to a local government election. The legal theories are difficult, but it looks like the result will be a Republican governor re-imposing a Republican county commissioner on primarily African-American, primarily Democratic citizens.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>