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  • Obama Nominates Three to D.C. Superior Court

    2/03/11
    Source: 
    The Legal Times

    President Obama has nominated three Washington lawyers to serve as judges for the District of Columbia Superior Court.

    If confirmed, Jennifer Di Toro, Donna Murphy and Yvonne Williams would fill the vacancies created by the retirements of judges Kaye Christian, Brook Hedge and Judith Retchin.

    Di Toro, Murphy and Williams come from three different areas of the law.

  • Shelby County voting rights case debated in Washington courtroom

    2/02/11
    Source: 
    The Birmingham News

    WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for Shelby County asked a federal judge in Washington today to declare two key parts of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional because Congress relied on old voting statistics when it extended the historic civil rights law for another 25 years.

  • LDF Continues Fight to Defend Voting Rights Act

    2/02/11
    Related Case or Issue: 
    Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder

    The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Presents Oral Argument in Defense of Section 5 of the VRA

    (New York, NY) – Today the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) presented oral argument in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, a case challenging a core provision of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 5. The provision requires jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to have voting changes reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to ensure that they are nondiscriminatory.

  • AP: Judge raises questions about Voting Rights Act

    2/02/11
    Source: 
    The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON -- A federal judge on Wednesday questioned whether a key component of the landmark Voting Rights Act is outdated, expressing skepticism about using evidence of racial discrimination from 40 or 50 years ago to justify continued election monitoring for a group of mostly Southern states.

    "We're now looking at a situation where that information is at least 45 years out of date, and by the time the 2006 extension of the Voting Rights Act runs its course it will be 70 years," he said. "That wouldn't seem to be a current coverage formula, would it?"

  • Line drawn on prison head count debate

    1/31/11
    Source: 
    Albany Times Union

    There are legal and practical merits on both sides of the issue. Nozzolio pointed to a section of New York's Constitution that says the census data "shall be controlling" for redistricting purposes.