This Long-Lost Constitutional Clause Could Save the Right to Vote

[unhappycamper]

Last edited Thu Jan 29, 2015, 08:01 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.thenation.com/article/195705/any-way-abridged

This Long-Lost Constitutional Clause Could Save the Right to Vote



Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens, who led the fight for universal male suffrage, photographed by Matthew Brady, circa 1858.

This Long-Lost Constitutional Clause Could Save the Right to Vote
Richard Kreitner
January 21, 2015

With the exception of the early 1960s, the right to vote in the United States is arguably more embattled today than at any time since Reconstruction. In a quick succession of rulings in October, voter-ID laws, residency requirements, and the curtailment of early voting hours and same-day registration were upheld or overturned in states across the country. The Supreme Court permitted restrictions in some states for the midterm elections and prohibited them in others, but it refused to rule on the merits of the laws.

Amid the turmoil, voting-rights advocates cheered every small victory, however local or tenuous, and rued the many losses. The movement is still staggering from the body blow of Shelby County v. Holder (2013), in which the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965—the formula that determined which state and local governments had to submit proposed election-law changes to the federal government for advance approval.

The strategy at this point is still unclear. Some favor a constitutional amendment explicitly granting the right to vote. Others support the Voting Rights Amendment Act, which would repair the damage inflicted by Shelby County and create additional protections. Both are worthy initiatives, necessary components of a strategy to protect and expand the right to vote.

But an important tool remains unused, all but forgotten in a dark and dusty corner of the shed. Dating back to Reconstruction, it has the great merit of being already enshrined in the Constitution. According to Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, any state that denies or abridges the right to vote for any reason must have its congressional representation reduced in proportion to the number of citizens it disenfranchises. Arguably the most radical clause in the Constitution, it was designed to remake the government and the country. It has never been enforced.

[Sherman A1]

1. Interesting

One suspects that the ACLU would find this to their interest.

[Joe Bacon]

5. The same ACLU that supports Citizens United?

I doubt it

[safeinOhio]

2. Seems pretty clear

Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

[forest444]

3. The problem is that while the perpetrators have that 5-4 majority in the court,

they are the law.

[marble falls]

4. Scalia, Roberts, Thomas are the flies in he ointment.

[Joe Bacon]

6. You've pointed out the main problem!

As long as there are five whores on the corrupted Court, Republicans will still get their way. And thanks to the Koch Brothers buying the Senate (Thanks to the ACLU!), that's not going to change.

[ellennelle]

7. link

thx for drawing attention to this, but please include links when posting.

here's the link:

http://www.thenation.com/article/195705/any-way-abridged

(link function does not appear to be functioning.)

thx again.

[unhappycamper]

8. Naaah - I forgot to post the link..

D'oh

[Baitball Blogger]

9. The Fourteenth Amendment shall set us free.

[TxVietVet]

10. Remind the ACLU when they ask for a donation.

Morris Dees' SPLC would solicit me for years. I was a donor. Then, I mentioned I would not contribute anymore unless they featured reichwing nut jobs and their hatred. Limbaugh and others. They do mention a little now, but not enough to get my money. They won't get into specifics and name the hate mongers like druggie Limbaugh, O'Lielly, Hannity or Michael Savage.

[AsaGordon]

11. A Decade+ of Advocacy for the "Long-Lost Constitutional Clause" ignored

This "discovered" Long-Lost Constitutional Clause to restore voting rights has long been championed over the last decade and a half by Asa of the Green Party and has been, long-ignored, by "abridged" self absorbed "progressive" media reporting.
MALAPPORTIONMENT PENALTY INITIATIVE (MAP)
http://asagordon.byethost10.com/MAP_DCSGP_INITIATIVE.html
"This is the most amazing proposition that has ever been brought forward by a non-lawyer , and if it is accurate, it could change the whole outcome of the voting process in the United States." _Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).

Greens’ Civil Actions to Democratize the Electoral College Revives a Lost Motive behind the March on Washington
http://www.greenpapers.net/?p=698
Neo-Redemption Gerrymandering of the Electoral College
(Suffer Loss of Representatives to Congress)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog/?p=3368
July 18, 2013_GREEN PAGES Vol.17,No. 1-Summer 2013
Taxpayer Voter ID Act would allow more citizens to vote
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog/?p=3497
July 22, 2014_GREEN PAGES Vol.18,No. 1-Summer 2014

Google: "abridges the right to vote"
Google: "Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment"
Google: Green Party Section 2 Fourteenth Amendment