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6/11/10
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is one of our nation’s most effective federal civil rights statutes. Shelby County, Alabama has filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which is widely regarded as the heart of the legislation. On June 11, 2010, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of African-American residents of Shelby County whose voting rights are directly impacted by the county’s challenge.
Section 5 serves as our democracy’s discrimination checkpoint by requiring jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to submit proposed voting changes for federal approval before they are enacted to ensure that they are free from discrimination. This is commonly referred to as the “Section 5 preclearance" process. In 2006, the City of Calera, which lies within Shelby County, enacted a discriminatory redistricting plan without complying with Section 5, leading to the loss of the city’s sole African-American councilman, Ernest Montgomery. In compliance with Section 5, however, Calera was required to draw a nondiscriminatory redistricting plan and conduct another election in which Mr. Montgomery regained his seat.
The lawsuit challenging Section 5 was filed by Shelby County less than one year after LDF successfully defended its constitutionality in the Supreme Court Case Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder. LDF has intervened to, once again, defend the Voting Rights Act.
On September 21, 2011, the district court granted defendant-intervenor's motion for summary judgment, sustaining the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Decision is now pending on the appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.