Justice Ginsburg Slams Supreme Court’s ‘Hubris’ In Fiery Dissent On Voting Rights Act

[deminks]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/06/ruth-bader-ginsburg-voting-rights-act-dissent.php

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg penned the fierce dissent against the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision Tuesday to invalidate a key section of the Voting Rights Act, accusing the conservative justices of displaying “hubris” and a lack of sound reasoning.

“[T]he Court’s opinion can hardly be described as an exemplar of restrained and moderate decision making,” wrote the leader of the court’s liberal wing. “Quite the opposite. Hubris is a fit word for today’s demolition of the VRA.”

Joined by the three other liberal-leaning justices, Ginsburg scolded the conservative majority and its rationale for throwing out Section 4 of the law — which contains the formula Congress has used to determine which states and local governments must receive federal pre-approval before changing their voting laws.

“Congress approached the 2006 reauthorization of the VRA with great care and seriousness. The same cannot be said of the Court’s opinion today,” she wrote. “The Court makes no genuine attempt to engage with the massive legislative record that Congress assembled. Instead, it relies on increases in voter registration and turnout as if that were the whole story.”


(end snip)

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Ginsburg is an American treasure!

Her dissent opinion on the sexual harassment case yesterday was excellent as well.

[rhett o rick]

2. The most important issue today is free and fair voting. When that goes, all is lost. nm

[cascadiance]

6. As Thom Hartmann and Justice Scalia have both noted, the constitution doesn't give the right to vote

The Voting Rights act basically keeps states from discriminating in this area, but the fundamental right is still not there and is left over from the slavery days too. Scalia noted this in the 2000 decision to override the Florida Supreme Court's recount process. Hartmann notes this as a reason to do an amendment to the constitution to institute the right to vote.

I think that now we should add both putting in the right to vote in our constitution along with the fundamental pillars of the Voting Rights Act as an amendment, as well as updating the 4th amendment so that there are no more gray areas in protecting our privacy that allows it to be abused by both the government and private business. We need to add these amendments to the movetoamend.org effort to get rid of corporate personhood crap and the "money is free speech" crap that this conservative judicial activist court gave earlier before their activist decisions of this week.

We need to find ways to appeal to the masses on this and get this to be more of a grass roots efforts to have the states lead the charge, as the federal government and our court system are corrupt as hell now!

[heaven05]

3. a

breath of humanity and compassionate reasoning.

[savalez]

4. Ginsburg:

“Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet,”

[rhett o rick]

7. Very well put. Things are going to continue to get worse. I just hope we can recover. nm

[cascadiance]

5. I'd earlier wondered why she didn't retire earlier in Obama's first term...

... so as not to risk a Romney nominating her replacement and Obama to name one instead during the first term.

Now I see why. She's the most liberal voice on this court, and one that's really needed probably all the way up until the end of Obama's second term at least. With the way Obama's been lately, he might have nominated a more corporatist justice to replace her, and the way things have been going lately on this court, we need every ounce of liberal bent that we can get, and I think she knows this!

[kelliekat44]

8. I remember during the Clinton when some warned about the overturn of the VRA. Some scoffed at the

warning...I did not because it was obvious to me that if certain people gained power, they would use it to deny civil and social rights to those they don't like. The American Spring is upon us. Will those who decry the government work to elect even more conservative Congress members and a GOP President? The so-called "scandals" couldn't take him down...but the SCOTUS is their last resort

[suffragette]

9. K&R

[Cha]

10. K&R

[Overseas]

11. K&R. She tells it like it is. Congress did approach the reauthorization with great care.

The court is supposed to defer to them.

[Zorra]

12. I'm not saying that all conservatives are stupid, but,

in reality, they are.

[Enthusiast]

13. Stupid and evil........nt

[KharmaTrain]

14. Roberts Payback For Standing With The AHCA...

...I'll bet he got tired of sitting in the lunchroom alone...Tony wouldn't share his tuna fish. I'm hoping this big negative...and yet another awful ruling...will energize minority voters next year like it did last year. If anything, they stand to gain or lose a lot more in the state elections...and this is where the Democrats need to really focus on. It's a lot harder for minorities to lose rights when Democrats control state houses.

[Solly Mack]

15. K&R