The Gutting Of The Voting Rights Act

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🗓️ 30 November 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

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Summary

Journalist Ari Berman says both the Supreme Court and the lower courts are working to dismantle the 1965 law that's considered one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the U.S. "It's precisely because it worked and because it worked so well that there has been such a dedicated effort for 50 plus years to try to weaken and nullify it," Berman says.

Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews two mysteries: Alexis Soloski's Here in the Dark and The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast and the following message come from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation,
0:05.8	where young scientists pursue bold ideas.
0:08.7	100% of your donation funds groundbreaking research. Donate today at Damon Runyon.org
0:15.0	slash donate. This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. We'll soon be entering
0:20.5	another presidential election season and some courts are
0:23.8	laser focused on dismantling the Voting Rights Act with the sharpest
0:27.5	undercut handed down just before Thanksgiving. A federal appeals court issued a
0:31.9	ruling that would prevent private citizens and civil rights groups from filing lawsuits that enforce the Voting Rights Act.
0:38.5	It basically establishes that all lawsuits must be brought by the Justice Department.
0:43.2	Past in 1965, the Voting Rights Act has been seen as one of the most significant achievements
0:48.7	of the civil rights movement.
0:50.7	It dismantled decades of discriminatory Jim Crow laws and aimed to protect against racial gerrymandering.
0:57.0	But for decades, really since its inception, the Voting Rights Act has also been under legal assault with court decisions hollowing out key
1:03.9	provisions of the Act. Here to talk about the history and what's at stake with the
1:08.2	latest action is Ari Berman, a National Voting Rights rights correspondent for Mother Jones.
1:14.2	He's the author of Give Us the Ballot,
1:16.2	the Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America.
1:19.3	Ari Berman, welcome back to Fresh Air.
1:21.5	Thanks so much for having me back, Tanya.
1:23.4	Yes.
1:24.4	So this latest ruling, it'll likely be appealed to the Supreme Court, but can you give us more
1:29.5	detail on the ruling itself and what it actually means for the power of the Voting Rights Act.
	...

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