ACLU Comment on Justice Department Plans to Help Protect Voting Rights in Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. today said he will ask a federal judge to require Texas to submit all voting law changes to the Justice Department for approval due to the state’s history of discrimination. The move follows the recent Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder invalidating a critical part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Holder said the department intends to “fully utilize the law’s remaining sections to subject states to preclearance as necessary.”

Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, said, “Although no substitute for bipartisan congressional action to restore key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, we welcome the Justice Department’s plans to use the law’s remaining sections to reimpose the preclearance requirement in parts of the country where there is a long-standing pattern of voting rights violations. We similarly intend to use all available resources to fight for the right of Americans to vote free from racial discrimination.”