voting rights act

Home
voting rights act

LGBT groups decry SCOTUS Voting Rights Acts ruling as ‘grave disservice’

The Georgia Voice Editors
Politics
0

images/stories/6-25-13/scotus.jpg

Tomorrow will be a historical day in the history of the fight for equality for all LGBT Americans when we learn what nine people in black robes think about our relationships.

Today we learned that a slim majority, 5-4, of the Supremes feel our country is enjoying a time of post racial progress and, to quote many others, gutted the Voting Rights Act and essentially erased the work of so many people during the civil rights movement.
  
Who voted how was not surprising: voting against the Voting Rights Act were Chief Justice John G. Roberts, who delivered the majority opinion. Joining Roberts were Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a "fiery" dissent, and she was joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Guest Editorial: Why the LGBT community must engage in the reapportionment process

The Georgia Voice Editors
Editorials
0

Beginning on Aug. 15, the Georgia General Assembly will hold a special session to redraw congressional and legislative district boundaries. This process, known as reapportionment, happens after each national census.

Because Georgia is one of several southern states that must adhere to the Voting Rights Act, there is always a greater level of scrutiny over our process and the final rulings on district boundaries are usually made by a panel of judges.

This year district boundaries for all legislative and congressional seats will be redrawn. While there will be no change in the number of state legislative seats (236), due to population growth, Georgia will gain one additional Congressional seat.