A Second Trump Presidency Might Be a Death Knell For the Voting Rights Act

[In It to Win It]

Balls and Strikes

For the first time in his three runs for president, Donald Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote in 2024. But during his first term and in the four years since, he’s made it abundantly clear that he does not think people’s votes matter. He insisted the results in 2020 were illegitimate, and harassed government officials to “find” fake votes for him. He helped instigate the deadly January 6 insurrection in an attempt to overturn the election results and disenfranchise millions of people. And in the run-up to the 2024 election, he and his campaign filed spurious “election integrity” lawsuits in the courts and hatched “secret plans” with the Republican Speaker of the House to perhaps seize power even if he lost again.

For as much as Trump has already devalued votes, the next votes people cast will matter even less. Conservative elites have spent decades whittling away at the Voting Rights Act, which was once a robust tool to protect the ability of people of color to participate in the political process. In a second Trump term, the few protections left will crumble, and free and fair elections will be pushed further out of reach.

The Voting Rights Act is a landmark piece of legislation enacted by Congress in 1965 in order to finally enforce the Fifteenth Amendment’s prohibition on racial discrimination in voting. The VRA dramatically increased Black voters’ access to the ballot and representation in government: After the 1966 election, for example, the number of Black elected officials in the South jumped from 72 to 159, and within four years of the Act’s passage, nearly 1 million Black people were registered to vote. The VRA’s passage also had significant downstream effects, like more public infrastructure spending in Black communities and fewer baseless arrests of Black residents. The Act remains one of the most important federal laws for protecting voters against discrimination and making self-governance a reality for marginalized people.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, however, the Voting Rights Act is not what it used to be. Section 5 of the law requires electoral districts with a history of racist voter discrimination to “preclear” changes to their voting policies with federal courts or the Department of Justice, so the federal government could ensure that such changes were legal. And Section 4 of the VRA laid out a formula to identify which jurisdictions Section 5 covers. But in 2013, the Supreme Court decided in Shelby County v. Holder that Section 4’s formula was unconstitutional. Since there’s now no formula establishing where preclearance applies, preclearance doesn’t apply anywhere. For the past decade, there has been no check on discriminatory policies before they go into effect.

[CousinIT]

1. There's no "might".

The MAGA wet dream is to undo the past century: Voting Right Act, Civil Rights Act, Roe, Affirmative Action, LGBTQ rights, Chevron doctrine, no-fault divorce, etc. The MAGA-packed "supreme" court has destroyed the VRA, and Trump will certainly finish it off. The ONLY thing left is the Civil Rights act and no-fault divorce.

[moondust]

2. and repealing the 13th Amendment

[CousinIT]

3. And maybe the 19th. n/t

[bdamomma]

5. Geez, don't give them

any ideas. I decline posting that idea. Women would marching in the streets.

[bluestarone]

4. Hell, it could be the Death Kneel for our country if you think about it.

Wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a plan to invade and take over everything as a final part of their plans. tRUMP, his Cultists, Russia China, North korea, along with 200 house members, our supreme court, all the republican governors and so on. I feel we are at our weakest point since Pearl Harbor. It's not over folks. That's what i see.

[bdamomma]

6. Elon

and the Goons want to bring apartheid to this country.