| Subject: Future of the Voting Rights Act book |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 5/15/2006, 9:56 AM |
| To: election-law |
The Russell Sage Foundation has issued this press release, which begins: "The Voting Rights Act (VRA) stands among the great achievements of American democracy. The United States Congress has begun the process of considering whether to renew certain expiring provisions of the Act. Originally adopted in 1965, the Act extended full political citizenship to African-American voters in the United States nearly 100 years after the Fifteenth Amendment first gave them the vote. While Section 2 of the VRA is a nationwide, permanent ban on discriminatory election practices, Section 5 is unique in all of federal policy. Section 5 targets only certain parts of the country, requiring that legislative bodies in these areas--mostly southern states with a history of discriminatory practices--get permission from the federal government before they can implement any change that affects voting. But Section 5 is set to expire in 2007. In The Future of the Voting Rights Act (forthcoming, Sept. 2006) David Epstein, Richard Pildes, Rodolfo de la Garza, and Sharyn O'Halloran, bring together leading historians, political scientists, and legal scholars to assess the role Section 5 should play in America's future. These experts are now available to answer questions on the Voting Rights Act and to provide perspective as the debate is engaged in Congress"
This is a must-read book for anyone interested in the important questions of VRA renewal (disclosure: I have a chapter in a book). It is the product of two conferences held in the last few years, conferences which generated a great deal of debate among the leading political scientists and legal scholars interested in assessing how the Voting Rights Act has been working in recent years.
Sage has also released this executive summary, which gives a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the conclusions of the book.-- Rick Hasen William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law Loyola Law School 919 Albany Street Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211 (213)736-1466 - voice (213)380-3769 - fax rick.hasen@lls.edu http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html http://electionlawblog.org