Subject: Thernstrom article
From: David Epstein
Date: 7/29/2005, 1:50 PM
To: election-law@majordomo.lls.edu
Reply-to:
de11@columbia.edu

There's a link to the Thernstrom article on her webpage at:
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/thernstrom__a.htm

I'm in general agreement with the thrust of the article, but not to
the point where I'd advocate letting Section 5 expire completely.

Thernstrom also claims at one point that "the congressional leadership
is promising to extend it another quarter century." This is, in fact,
only a nacent plan at the present time, and I've never heard it
described as a "promise."

Nor does she mention any emerging problems in voting rights -- native
americans, technology, latinos and citizenship -- that a reconfigured
Section 5 could address.

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David Epstein
Professor of Political Science
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027
212-854-7566
www.columbia.edu/~de11
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