The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 is a United States legislation that abolished discriminatory voting practices responsible for the deprivation of the right to vote of African-Americans.
John Glover Roberts, the 58-year-old 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States since September 29, 2005, who twice administered the oath of office of President Barack Obama, argued that Mississippi may be more sensitive to black voting rights than Massachusetts, as reported in Yahoo News on March 2nd.
The argument, as emphasized in a hearing, referred to Section 5 of the VRA which requires that nine states and many other jurisdictions, mostly in the South, but also includes parts of the Bronx, “pre-clear” voting law changes with the US Justice Department due to past disenfranchisement record.
The discussion was relevant because Mississippi, ridiculed as retrogressively opposed to any change, has to secure prior approval by the US Justice Department for any election-law changes, whereas, Massachusetts is not required to do so.
Chief Roberts, among conservative justices on the Supreme Court, focused on Section 5 if it has become discriminatory due to records indicating that black votes are equal or even higher than their white counterparts in the covered jurisdictions, pointing-out as an example that “Massachusetts has the worst ratio of white voter turnout to African-American voter turnout, as reported.
William Galvin, the 62-year-old 27th and current Massachusetts’ Secretary of the Commonwealth since January 1995, retaliated by claiming Roberts had obscured US Census data and said “The concept of black communities in Massachusetts not voting is not true. If he is implying that Mississippi is doing better than us and don’t need the VRA, he shouldn’t resort to using deceptive statistics, as it’s truly disturbing”.
Roberts actually read census figures that partially backed his argument but failed to include margins of error that could prove Massachusetts have more minority participation than whites.
Massachusetts played a historical role as anti-slavery, anti-Jim Crow and pro-Civil Rights in the historic struggle over America’s slave-holding legacy, as posted in Yahoo News.
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