Shelby County v. Holder pits local election control against lingering racism

Cheap new nba jerseys wholesale “Nobody likes to be stereotyped,” said Reggie Giles, a resident of Shelby County, Ala. Which is why stereotypical assumptions about Southerners, he noted—specifically, that they’re racists—is offensive.

“Racism is a stigma that the South can't seem to shake and that most of the rest of the country seems to want to perpetuate,” Giles, a software engineer, said.

Giles was one of several Shelby County residents who shared their thoughts with Yahoo News earlier this week as the Supreme Court prepares to hear Shelby County v. Holder on Wednesday. It’s a case that may determine the constitutionality of nearly five decades of voting rights legislation, specifically Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and a referendum of sorts on how far their county, and most of the South, has evolved on voting rights in the past 50 years.

Giles, who lives in Pelham, a Birmingham suburb, cheap New York Rangers 18 Marc Staal jerseys said protecting all voters’ rights is a “no-brainer.” But like many Shelby County residents, he finds some laws antiquated: Legislation conceived in 1965, he noted, doesn’t always apply in 2013.

At the heart of the debate reaching the court is local control of election laws against alleged racial discrimination in voting. Nine states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia) are covered under Section 5 of the act, which mandates that changes to local election laws—no matter how trivial those alterations are perceived—must receive clearance from the Justice Department or through a lawsuit at the D.C. district court. Also subject to Section 5 are 57 counties and 12 townships outside those nine states. (See a full list.)

Congress has renewed the law several times, the last time in 2006 when it extended the Voting Rights Act until 2032.

MLB all star jerseys cheap The petitioner in this case is Shelby County, home to nearly 200,000 residents. The county didn’t seek to amend its voting laws, but it nevertheless sued the Justice Department to strike down Section 5 in its entirety.

(SCOTUS Blog has more in-depth analysis and information for those interested in exploring the legislation’s more esoteric nooks and crannies, including the formula in Section 4 that determines which areas Section 5 covers.)

Legislative diversity helps battle racism in government

The racism label is hardly limited to the South. Former South Dakota state Sen. Thomas Shortbull, who also shared his thoughts with Yahoo News, says government oversight is needed in his state.

Two of the state’s counties—Shannon and Todd—already comply with the federal government. And for years, NCAA jerseys discount state politicians fought over the counties that hold part of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations along the southern border with Nebraska.

In 1975, Shortbull recommended that Shannon and Todd counties sit in the same legislative district where 90 percent of the voters would be American Indian. Shortbull argued that the only way the group could gain a legislative voice was to merge the reservations into one district. Five years later, the state—reluctantly, Shortbull said—created one district that covered most of the reservations.

“[Section 5] is the only vehicle in some states to fight institutional racism in local and state governments,” Shortbull wrote in his first-person account. “In the state of South Dakota, racism towards minorities is prevalent, cheap soccer jerseys new and the only means of diminishing the racism is to elect more minorities to state and local governments.”

Local victories tough to win—and maintain

In Houston, Rogene Calvert has advocated for the city’s Asian-American communities for years. While there are 280,000 Asian-Americans in Houston, Calvert says, they rarely can elect a representative candidate because the state has dispersed those voters into separate districts.

They did score a victory in 2004, however, when Rep. Hubert Vo bounced a 22-year incumbent from House District 149 in southwestern Houston and became Texas’ first Vietnamese-American representative.

Vo, who won that race by 16 votes after three recounts, has been re-elected four times. But, Calvert said, in 2011, new cheap youth nba jerseys the state eyed redistricting to eliminate Vo’s seat and break it up into three districts.

“We objected to this at every stage of the process,” she said, noting that she testified before the state’s House Redistricting Committee, urging it to reconsider its plan to split up Asian-American voters in southwest Harris County.

“The state legislature ignored us,” she added.

Under Section 5, however, the Justice Department refused to approve redistricting.

“Because of that, we still have a vibrant coalition in HD 149 and we still can elect the candidates of our choice,” Calvert said. “Without the protection of the VRA, NHL hockey jerseys discount the influence of the Asian-American community would have been drastically reduced.”

‘Punished for the sins of our fathers’