Democrats Respond To SCOTUS Rulings By Looking At Applying Voting Rights Act Sec. 4 To All 50 States

House Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said that Democrats are looking at applying a key part of the Voting Rights Act to all 50 states after SCOTUS voter suppression rulings.

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House Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) says Democrats are looking at applying the Voting Rights Act, specifically sec. 4 to all 50 states in response to the GOP voter suppression laws and the Supreme Court's anti-voting decisions. pic.twitter.com/QN4wPvsbv2

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) July 1, 2021

Rep. Clyburn said on MSNBC’s MTP Daily:

Well, when it comes to HR 4, you’re absolutely correct, and the reason is it’s only now that so many states are demonstrating that it has preclearance. 48 states have passed something that we might call restrictive laws when it comes to voting. 

Way back when we first passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, I think it was only about seven states, maybe five or six total states and maybe about two states that were — so this opening up a new avenue for us and so what we’re doing here, with Section 4, is we’re looking at whether or not the law applies to all 50 states which would be a big change, and now 48 states have demonstrated that maybe they should be subjected to preclearance so

I would vote that congress would move before our others break to deal with S 1 and HR 4, and I don’t know that you have to have all of the records you’re trying to develop if it were to apply to all 50 states. It’s so, put preclearance into HR 1, and you’ll have basically what we’re looking for. 

Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act requires states that are subjected to the law to get preclearance from the federal government before they change their voting laws.

One of the big complaints from Republicans and one of the pretenses that the Supreme Court used to gut the Voting Rights Act was that it was not universally applied. Democrats are looking at changing that after 48 states have passed voter suppression laws.

The message from Democrats to the Supreme Court and Republicans is that if they want to gut voting rights, Democrats will give the federal government oversight of voting rights laws in every state.

Democrats are committed to protecting democracy from coast to coast because freedom doesn’t stop at the state line.