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.
The case, likely to wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court, attracted a big crowd as lawyers debated whether certain parts of the country, including Alabama, would backslide into endangering the rights of minority voters if the Justice Department were no longer looking over their shoulder. All or part of 16 states have been subject to federal oversight since 1965, and the formula for how those states were chosen was based on voter registration and turnout statistics from that time.
"The climate in the country was totally different," said Bert Rein, a lawyer for Shelby County. "It was a crisis."
But the Justice Department, as well as lawyers for black residents in Shelby County, argued that Congress correctly extended the law in 2006 after analyzing current examples of how some cities, counties and states still try to change their election systems in ways that disenfranchise minority voters.
"Certainly it was rational for Congress to choose to stay the course and continue to see Section 5 do the work necessary to root out discrimination," said Kristen Clarke with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Section 5 requires local and state governments in those 16 states to get Justice Department approval before making any voting related changes such as redrawing district lines.
U.S. District Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia aggressively questioned both teams of lawyers for about three hours and did not indicate when he will issue a ruling.
The Shelby County Commission authorized the lawsuit, and its lawyers are being paid by a nonprofit legal defense fund. The county's lawyer, Frank "Butch" Ellis was in the courtroom for the debate. Also in attendance were two of the black Shelby County residents who intervened in the case, Calera City Councilman Ernest Montgomery and Harry Jones.
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