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A Racial Entitlement? Supreme Court Threatens Voting Rights Act, One of Civil Rights Era's Key Gains

2,453 views · Published 28 February 2013 · 11:47 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Democracy Now! · 2013 · News & Politics

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http://www.democracynow.org - As President Obama unveiled a statue of Rosa Parks at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, the Supreme Court considered overturning a key achievement of the civil rights movement -- the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Signed in 1965 by President L. Johnson, the law requires several states and counties with a history of racial discrimination to clear election-related changes with the federal government. While the Supreme Court's four liberal justices appeared willing to back the Voting Rights Act, conservative justices were much more critical. Justice Antonin Scalia described the law as a "perpetuation of racial entitlement." We're joined by The Nation's Ari Berman, who covered the hearing and has reported extensively on the battle for voting rights. Berman says overturning Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act "would open the floodgates to more voter suppression laws, more legal challenges, and would make it difficult to enforce the voting rights laws that are on the books. ... It would be one of the most radical and consequential decisions made by the court in a very long time."

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