John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is a proposed federal legislation in the United States that aims to strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and protect the voting rights of all citizens, particularly African Americans, Latinos, and other minority groups, as advocated by Civil Rights Movement leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X. The bill is named after the late John Lewis, a prominent Civil Rights Movement leader and Democratic United States Representative from Georgia, who worked closely with Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Stokely Carmichael. The legislation has been endorsed by various organizations, including the NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union, and League of United Latin American Citizens, as well as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris.

● Introduction

The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is a response to the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) to strike down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson and supported by Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Ted Kennedy. The proposed legislation seeks to restore and strengthen the protections afforded by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was a landmark achievement of the Civil Rights Movement, led by figures such as Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, and Diane Nash. The bill has been introduced in Congress by Democratic lawmakers, including Terri Sewell, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer, with support from Republican lawmakers like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, as well as Independent Angus King.

● Background

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted to address the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the Southern United States, particularly in states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, where Jim Crow laws and literacy tests were used to prevent minority groups from voting, as documented by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Langston Hughes. The law required states with a history of voter suppression to preclear any changes to their voting laws with the United States Department of Justice or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, as mandated by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966). However, the Shelby County v. Holder (2013) decision effectively gutted this provision, allowing states to implement restrictive voting laws without federal oversight, as seen in Texas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, which have been criticized by Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch, and Vanita Gupta.

● Provisions

The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore the preclearance requirement for states with a history of voter suppression, as well as add new provisions to protect voting rights, including the requirement that states provide voter registration opportunities to felons who have completed their sentences, as advocated by Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander. The bill would also prohibit voter ID laws that disproportionately affect minority groups, as seen in Indiana and Kansas, and require states to provide language access for voters with limited English language proficiency, as mandated by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has been supported by Jorge Ramos and Maria Hinojosa. Additionally, the legislation would establish a national voter registration system and provide funding for voter education and voter outreach programs, as proposed by Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Cory Booker.

● Legislative_history

The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was first introduced in Congress in 2019 by Terri Sewell and Nancy Pelosi, with support from Civil Rights Movement leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as well as Labor unions like the AFL-CIO and SEIU. The bill has undergone several revisions and markups, with input from voting rights experts like Lawrence Tribe and Pamela Karlan, as well as state and local officials like Stacey Abrams and Ayanna Pressley. Despite bipartisan support, the legislation has faced opposition from some Republican lawmakers, including Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, who have raised concerns about federal overreach and state sovereignty, as argued by Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.

● Impact_and_reception

The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act has been widely praised by Civil Rights Movement leaders, voting rights advocates, and Democratic lawmakers, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have argued that the legislation is necessary to protect the voting rights of minority groups and ensure the integrity of the electoral process, as emphasized by Jimmy Carter and James Baker. However, some Republican lawmakers and conservative groups have expressed opposition to the bill, arguing that it is an overreach of federal power and an attempt to nationalize voting laws, as claimed by Hans von Spakovsky and John Fund. The legislation has also been endorsed by various organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, American Civil Liberties Union, and League of Women Voters, as well as editorial boards like the New York Times and Washington Post.

● Comparison_to_other_voting_rights_legislation

The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is part of a broader effort to protect and expand voting rights in the United States, which has included legislation like the Voting Rights Act of 1965, National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and Help America Vote Act of 2002, as well as state and local laws like California's California Voting Rights Act of 2001 and New York's Voting Rights Act of 2020, which have been supported by Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo. The bill has been compared to other voting rights legislation, such as the For the People Act of 2021, which aims to expand voting rights and reduce money in politics, as advocated by End Citizens United and Common Cause, as well as statehood bills like the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would grant statehood to Washington, D.C. and provide its residents with full voting rights in Congress, as supported by Eleanor Holmes Norton and Muriel Bowser.