Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has been crucial to challenging restrictive laws and protecting minority voting rights. This report analyzes new implications — that have so far gone largely unnoted — if the Court takes the extraordinary step of striking down this key provision.
The case of Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee 97-1252, to be argued before the Supreme Court Nov. 4, reviews whether an individual deserves prompt judicial review when asserting a First Amendment defense in response to the government’s prosecution. Its not a high-profile case, but the principle at stake is constitutional bedrock, and the case requires the court to fulfill its critical, if not always popular, role in our tripartite democracy.
Senate majority leader Trent Lott has established a new rule for the federal judicial selection process. There can be one, and only one, Hispanic woman on the United States Courts of Appeals. Since there is already one such judge (Rosemary Barkett, on the 11th Circuit), other Hispanic women can serve on trial courts, but the appellate courts are officially off limits.
