Shelby County V. Holder Case Study

Voting is an important activity which is helpful in expressing the insights, ideologies and motivations of a mass for political parties. Voter eligibility in both national and state election has boundaries and limitations. In some states, only adult white male property owners having certain religious believes had the privilege to vote. As a result, only five percent were eligible to vote in 1790. There were other obstructions such as white only primaries, literacy tests, race, gender and age. After the fifteenth Amendment was passed, a number of states adopted grandfather clause which allowed only adult males to vote whose grandfather is eligible to vote. African American women also struggled from exercising the franchise to voting. Because of poll tax, less wealthy citizens were discouraged from registering.

It was in 2011 that the Legislature passed Bill 14 that allowed Texas to have a strict voter ID law for the November election. Many people were opposed to this because it limited many eligible citizens from voting causing a lower voter turnout than what Texas has already had. This is a major problem in Texas because majority of our population consists of immigrants from Mexico and many of them are still fighting for citizenship. Because of this law it is in question, how much power does our state actually have in the regulation of elections?

Eminent domain -- the right of a government to take private property for public use by the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its authority. The United States uses Eminent Domain to put aside land every year for National Parks (i.e. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Everglades). However, in recent years, the government has been under attack for seizing these lands. Some people argue it’s a violation of the Fifth Amendment which states that any land taken by the government from private property must be given compensation. Because of this, it has become more challenging for the United States government to reserve land for public use. A new bill was put in place in 2015 called in H.R.330. This bill

McCreary County v. ACLU was a significant case for the Establishment Clause, freedom of religion, and the First Amendment itself. This case made its way into the Supreme Court in the later part of 2004, and a decision was reached in the middle of 2005. This case extended the power of the Establishment Clause to prohibit the public display of religious texts in government-funded buildings.

1. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the chairmen of SCLC since he was one of the founders. He was also the face of the Civil Rights Movement and SNCC did not appreciate the way which SCLC used MLK’s image as a base for their income. They also had different approaches to the way which they wanted to tackle the issues. Most of the members of SNCC were students which gave them a different perspective than the members of SCLC.

The state Supreme Court also stated that due to the facts the rule did not infringe upon any fundamental rights nor did it create/burden a suspect class, that it did not violate the equal protection guarantees of the Texas Constitution.

The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the

In todays current society, the Federal Constitution provides that the times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives is prescribed in each state by the state legislature. Congress is allowed to grant power by holding elections, which is where power is matched, by the state to control over the election process for state offices. Overall, state qualifications to vote are set by the states, subject to certain restrictions in the Constitution and its Amendments and the authority of the federal government in enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The authority has limits based in the Constitution and its Amendments. States may not use certain factors in determining qualification. Factors such

When individuals vote on voting day the one rule to vote, one must bring with them is an ID. Examples of an ID are driver license, California ID, or a passport. The main reason a person should bring an ID with them is too avoid voter fraud. Voter ID laws should not be eliminated because it is a way to prove if the voter is a citizen, their eligibility, and to avoid voter fraud.

The Voting Rights Act was one of the most revolutionary bills ever passed by the congressional legislation in the United States. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law on August 6th, 1965, not only as part of politics but also, a depiction of morals. Since 1965, it has protected minority voters at the polls, but it has been fifty years since the Voting Rights Act has been passed and it is still a controversial topic that is constantly debated on today. The voting rights of all minorities throughout the country are once again under attack which impacts one’s ability to exercise his or her constitutional right as a citizen.

History: Powell v. Alabama was a Supreme Court decision where nine African-American males on a train were accused of raping two young Caucasian-American women. This situation sparked an altercation between the African-American men on the train and a few other white males. After being taken into custody, the Black men were not given the right to counsel upon request, and initially (besides one individual) sentenced to death.

The Civil War and the period of Reconstruction brought significant political, social, and economic changes to American society, and these effects continued into the 20th century.

People always want to demand their essential rights from government’s restriction by passing new laws. There was a period when people demanded their rights in the 1900s. Within the United States, most African Americans’ rights were denied by state governments. Hence, in the 1960s, they took a stand on requiring their rights through the Civil Rights movement around the country. During this movement, the Voting Rights Act was significant and for the reason is that this act gave African Americans a chance to participate in US politics by their votes. Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions.

Everyone has the right to vote, but many don’t take that opportunity. In the article “Should Voting Be Mandatory?” Eric Liu tells us that “mandatory voting would prompt more Americans to pay attention to the choices;” people usually never pay attention to their choices, and then complain about it later when everything has already happened. (Par 5). Mandatory voting means that every citizen of the age of 18 and above that has a right to vote must vote. The thing that confuses me the most is that the people from The Civil Rights Movement fought so hard for equal voting rights, but the modern American citizens’ still don’t try to vote even though now all the citizens’ can vote. If we are given a right that people died for, then we should take a stand and vote, so that elections can be fair. Americans’ should vote to voice their opinion on important matter to move the country forward. Voting have to be mandatory for all citizen.

We see multiple successes of voting equality attempted through amendments, however, the Supreme Court’s decision on Shelby County v. Holder has pushed back years and years of effort for voting rights. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling was in Shelby County’s favor, stating that the Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional along with Section 5. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, who wrote the majority’s opinion, said that the power to regulate election was reserved to the states, not the federal government. As a result to the court’s decision, the federal government can no longer determine which voting law discriminates and can be passed. After the case, many states had freely passed new voting laws; the most common voting law states passed