High Court strikes down the heart of the Voting Rights Act
By ARLENE HOLT BAKER
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision
effectively striking down the heart of
the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-
to-4 vote is shameful and a major set-
back to democracy.
Fifty years ago, the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. led the March on Wash-
ington for Jobs and Freedom, and I be-
lieve as he did that the “arc of the moral
universe… bends toward justice.” But
the June 25 decision twists that bend
in the wrong direction.
Favorability ratings
for unions goes up
Most Americans now have a favor-
able view of unions, according to a new
survey by Pew Research.
The Business Journal reported that
51 percent of Americans now have a fa-
vorable view of labor unions, up from
only 41 percent two years ago. The sur-
vey found that 61 percent of Americans
under 30 years of age view unions fa-
vorably. Only 51 percent in this age
bracket view businesses favorably.
The Pew Research survey found that
55 percent of Americans have a favor-
able view of business corporations,
compared with 39 percent who have an
unfavorable view of them. Two years
ago, 52 percent of Americans had an
unfavorable view of corporations.
When I was a young girl growing up
in Fort Worth, Texas, my mother could
not buy me a new pair of shoes because
she had to pay her poll tax. She was a
full-time domestic worker and my fa-
ther was a laborer and, like many hard-
working families during that time, my
parents had to make those kinds of hard
decisions. And she chose to exercise
her right to vote.
She knew that the right to vote is es-
sential in the struggle toward justice —
that it is the cornerstone of American
democracy; it provides voice to the
voiceless; it provides an opportunity to
access and exercise power that can
counter economic, social, gender and
racial inequalities.
Like so many other working people
of their time, my parents were resilient.
They experienced the dehumanizing
barriers to justice — but they believed
that with time and struggle those barri-
ers would fall.
And they did. When Congress
passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
barriers fell. In 2006, when Congress
reauthorized the act by sweeping ma-
jorities in both parties, barriers fell.
Today, we have gone backward.
This decision has placed a stamp of ap-
proval on barriers to justice.
But like my parents, we are resilient.
We won’t give up. In fact, we are more
cess to the ballot box.
We call on Congress to act force-
fully and expeditiously in a bipartisan
manner to ensure that every voter re-
mains protected.
(Editor’s Note: Arlene Holt Baker is
executive vice president of the national
AFL-CIO. She is the first African
American to be elected to one of the
federation’s three highest offices and
the highest-ranking African American
woman in the labor movement.)
The Roberts Corporate Court strikes again
(This article is from Think Progress,
a project of the nonpartisan Center for
American Progress Action Fund.)
T HE P OWERFUL
O VER THE P EOPLE
On June 25, we celebrated two land-
mark Supreme Court rulings advancing
LGBT rights, but a closer look at the
rest of the Supreme Court term reveals
a wide variety of troubling rulings.
These rulings may be on different is-
sues, but they all have a common
theme: Whenever possible the High
Court’s conservative wing puts the in-
terests of the powerful above those of
the people. This term the Supreme
Court has issued rulings attacking vot-
ing rights, consumer rights, workers’
rights, and more.
In particular, the Roberts Court
chooses to side with powerful corpora-
tions at almost every possible opportu-
nity. Even conservative-leaning
Supreme Courts in the past have not
sided with corporations as often. For
Expires 07/31/2013
JULY 5, 2013
mobilized than ever to ensure the right
to vote for all people and equal access
to the polls. As many states have
moved to suppress the right to vote for
people of color, poor people and young
people, 44 states this year proposed
legislation to strengthen voting rights
and seven states successfully passed
measures that would do just that. And
members of Congress committed to
democracy are pledging to revive pro-
tections against persistent voting rights
attacks.
America’s working families will
continue the fight for social and eco-
nomic justice. And we’ll do that by en-
suring every single person has equal ac-
O PEN
F ORUM
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
example, in cases where the powerful
U.S. Chamber of Commerce inter-
vened, they won barely more than half
the time under Chief Justice Rehnquist.
Since Chief Justice Roberts and Alito
joined the court in 2006, the Chamber
has won 70 percent of its cases. Over
the past two terms alone, the Chamber
has prevailed in a whopping 88 percent
of its cases. In fact, the Roberts Court is
the most pro-corporate Supreme Court
in more than six decades.
Here are a few of the areas where
the court trampled on the people at the
expense of the powerful:
• Voting Rights: The Court gutted
a key provision of the Voting Rights
Act. As a result, six states are already
moving forward with voter suppression
laws that previously would’ve been
held up or blocked entirely. If individu-
als cannot vote, they of course cannot
vote for politicians who support pro-
gressive or populist policies or vote
against those who are the tools of cor-
porate special interests like polluters,
insurance companies, and Wall Street
banks.
• Workers’ Rights: In two deci-
sions also handed down last week, the
Court made it much harder for victims
of workplace discrimination to seek
justice. The first case severely limited
the definition of who counts as a super-
visor, making it much easier for people
to be intimidated out of taking action
against harassment by their bosses. A
second decision issued the same day
made it much easier for corporations or
supervisors to retaliate against individ-
uals who complain about discrimina-
tion.
• Human Rights: In April, the
Court severely limited a 200-year-old
law that allowed individuals to use the
U.S. civil court system to seek recourse
for human rights violations committed
abroad. Chief Justice John Roberts led
a splintered court in ruling that several
Nigerians alleging an oil company
aided an abetted torture, arbitrary
killings, and indefinite detention could
not sue, because the corporate conduct
occurred outside the United States. It is
now essentially impossible to hold any-
one accountable for such conduct.
• Consumer Rights: The Roberts
Court has made a habit of issuing rul-
ings that limit the ability of individuals
to file class action lawsuits and/or seek
justice outside the arbitration system
that heavily favors corporations. The
Court issued several such rulings this
term, making it harder for individuals
or even millions of individuals im-
pacted by wrongdoing or some other
harm to take on powerful corporations.
In addition, the Court ruled in favor
of pharmaceutical companies, author-
ized what should be unconstitutionally
intrusive police collection of DNA, un-
dermined the rights of indigent defen-
dants, and sided with big developers
and trampled on “local community
rights,” among other unfortunate deci-
sions.
Based on the cases the Court has
agreed to hear next term, it appears we
may be in for more of the same. The
Court will hear cases on abortion
rights, housing discrimination, the sep-
aration of church and state, the ability
of the president to fill executive vacan-
cies in the face of Senate obstruction,
affirmative action, and environmental
laws, just to name a few potentially ex-
plosive decisions.
When the Court managed to rule
against corporate interests and the pow-
erful, it almost always came over the
objections of Chief Justice Roberts and
the other members of the Court’s con-
servative wing.
BOTTOM LINE: In spite of some
bullets dodged and landmark victories,
the Roberts Corporate Court continued
to distinguish itself by overwhelmingly
favoring corporate interests and the
powerful over the rights and interests
of individuals and the American peo-
ple.
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