In July 2007, George W. Bush invited the families of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks to the White House Rose Garden signing of the Voting Rights 
Act. The 25-year extension of civil rights legislation enacted in 1965 passed by a 98-0 vote in the Senate and by 390-33 in the […]

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“We set up phone banks and called every woman voter and ranked them according to their degree of pro-choice- ness, one to nine. Then we targeted the ones we could get to vote on the issue. We had 63 percent of the Republican women who favored legal abortion say that they would abandon DioGuardi and […]

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“The court explained that the challenged at-large electoral systems had been created against the backdrop of Alabama’s ‘unrelenting historical agenda, spanning from the late 1800s to the 1980s, to keep its black citizens economically, socially, and politically downtrodden, from the cradle to the grave.’” —U.S. District Judge John D. Bates Shelby County v. Holder, September […]

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No Democracy Without Reform The last election was an absolutely disgusting spectacle in Ohio, largely but not totally due to the stunning influx of TV and radio commercials from the so-called super-PACs. [“Smart Money,” Washington Spectator, December 1, 2012] Many of us just about wore out the mute button on our TV clickers! It seems […]

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Last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Shelby County v. Holder, a case challenging the constitutionality of a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The cornerstone provision is known as Section 5, which requires some states and localities to get federal clearance before making any changes to their voting laws. What […]

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