If you remember, the Supreme Court said Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional and that the formula it used was based on discrimination in the 1960s and thus it is outdated. Congress would have to update the formula in Section 4 before Section 5 can be viable again.

But that isn’t stopping Eric Holder from alleging discriminatory voting laws in Texas and thus trying to get the court to force Texas to comply with Section 5 and get permission from he DOJ before making changes to their voting laws.

Zitat

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BUSINESS INSIDER – Holder announced Thursday that the Justice Department would ask a court to require that Texas get clearance from the Justice Department before making any new changes to voting laws over the next decade.

The move comes about a month after the Supreme Court struck down a key section of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, and signals a new front in the Justice Department’s political battle with states over imposing new rules and restrictions on voting.

In a speech given at the annual National Urban League conference in Philadelphia, Holder said his request to the federal court in San Antonio, Texas, would be on the basis of a preclearance provision similar to that of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

“This request to ‘bail in’ the state – and require it to obtain ‘pre-approval’ from either the department or a federal court before implementing future voting changes – is available under the Voting Rights Act when intentional voting discrimination is found,” Holder said, according to prepared marks distributed by the Justice Department.

“Based on the evidence of intentional racial discrimination that was presented last year in the redistricting case, Texas v. Holder – as well as the history of pervasive voting-related discrimination against racial minorities that the Supreme Court itself has recognized – we believe that the State of Texas should be required to go through a preclearance process whenever it changes its voting laws and practices.”

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Without Section 4 there really is no Section 5 of the VRA. Therefore I’m not sure how much of a leg Holder has to stand on. I hope he fails and the court smacks Holder down for trying to backdoor Texas into compliance with an unconstitutional law.

http://therightscoop.com/eric-holder-sui...us-gutting-vra/