UPDATED: Sheila Jackson Lee is third Black lawmaker to be arrested during voting rights protests
Congress members Joyce Beatty and Hank Johnson were previously arrested for participating in separate demonstrations
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It’s Coming To His Office, What Will He Do?
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Original post date 10 July 2021
The Roberts Court Is Like Strom Thurmond in Judicial Robes
Since law school, Chief Justice John Roberts personal political crusades have been to undermine protections for voting rights, enable voter suppression, turn a blind eye to gerrymandering and increase the influence of big money in politics.
Making it hard to prove voter suppression was Roberts’ expressed goal. According to one of Roberts’ memos, violations of the key protections of the Voting Rights Act “should not be made too easy to prove.” Roberts allied in his efforts with segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond who had filibustered to block every civil rights bill. Back then, Roberts and Thurmond lost the argument and the extension of the Civil Rights Act passed the Senate 85-8 and by a near-unanimous House voice vote.
Testifying against Roberts’ nomination, Rep. John Lewis, who was beaten nearly to death marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, said:
Had Judge Roberts’ narrow reading of the Voting Rights Act prevailed, fewer people of color would be serving in Congress and at both the state and local level today. We cannot afford to elevate an individual to such a powerful lifetime position whose record demonstrates such a strong desire to reverse civil rights gains that so many of us sacrificed so much to achieve.
