Archive for the ‘voting rights’ Category

Gonzalez v. Arizona Rests upon a False Premise

The recent Ninth Circuit en banc decision in Gonzalez v. Arizona illustrates current erroneous understanding of the Elections Clause under Section 4 of Article I. At issue in this case was Arizona’s Proposition 200 that required prospective voters in Arizona to provide proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in both State […]

Georgia vs. U.S. Department of Injustice

Voting rights groups in Georgia were successful in stopping State election officials from using Social Security numbers and driver’s license data to check voters’ immigration status. Advocacy groups had told a federal three-judge panel that using the data to verify whether voters are citizens amounts to a “systematic purging” of voting rolls that must be […]

Does Indiana’s Photo ID Law Violate the Constitution?

Following the steps of other third parties, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), with Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) have recently filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court over Indiana’s photo-identification requirements for federal elections. The brief asserts Indiana State law is inconsistent with, and preempted by, the federal Help America Vote […]

Revisiting the Fifteenth Amendment

Summary: The Fifteenth Amendments sole purpose was to remove “white” from former rebel State statutes so black citizens could have equal footing as whites in voter qualification laws. This had no effect on stringent State voter laws that could easily disqualify most blacks on conditions other than race because there was no likelihood such an […]