Amid all the paeans to the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that will be published today, it’s vital to note that at this moment perhaps his most important legacy — his struggle to ensure the full realization of voting rights for all Americans — is under greater threat than at any time since his death. King, who would have turned 90 this year, was a tireless advocate for freedom, equality and democracy. He urged the nation to revitalize the amendments added to the Constitution after the Civil War — what he called the “full pledge of freedom” — to ensure equal citizenship for all. Even as a teenager, he spoke eloquently for the “13 million black sons and daughters of our forefathers” who “continue the fight for the translation of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments from writing on the printed page to an actuality.” At the center of King’s campaign for freedom was ending racial discrimination in voting. Over the course of his life, he demanded, time and again, “give us the ballot.” The right to vote was a core fundamental right: “To deny a person the right to exercise his political freedom at the polls is no less a dastardly act as to deny a Christian the right to petition God in prayer.”
King denounced the many types of “conniving methods” that were “still being used to prevent” African Americans from exercising their franchise. “The denial of this sacred right,” he insisted, was a “tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition.” King led one of the greatest marches in American history — from Selma, Ala., to the state capital in Montgomery — to demand that Congress end the “flagrant denial of the right to vote.”
Today, the Voting Rights Act that King helped to push through Congress is in tatters. To stop voting discrimination, the Voting Rights Act created strong remedies applicable to jurisdictions with a long history of flouting constitutional guarantees. Such jurisdictions would have to “preclear” new voting changes and prove they were nondiscriminatory before enforcing them. In 2013, in a 5-4 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court eliminated this critical remedy. Claiming that things had changed, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. insisted that the Voting Rights Act’s coverage formula was now unconstitutional.
Full Article: The Voting Rights Act is in tatters. Let’s honor King’s legacy by saving it. – The Washington Post.