More on VRA Renewal in the House

Subject: More on VRA Renewal in the House

From: Rick Hasen

Date: 7/11/2006, 1:00 PM

To: election-law

More on VRA Renewal in the House

This morning, a group of Republican election lawyers met with the Republican conference in the House, apparently to get everyone's ducks in a row before the scheduled vote on the VRA on Thursday. But it appears things did not go as planned, and the vote may be postponed yet again (alternatively, I hear rumors of allowing more amendments than the two amendments which would have been allowed under the old rule).

According to the CQ Midday Update:

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said, "I want this bill finished this week. But to tell you everything is settled and everyone is happy would not be the truth."

Boehner appeared discouraged after a two-hour meeting where, he said, there was "complete disagreement" among lawyers brought in to explain the effect of a provision in the bill that addresses a 2003 Supreme Court decision in Georgia v. Ashcroft that involved districts drawn to increase minority representation in so-called minority-majority districts.

"Members know there is very big disagreement among the lawyers over the language," Boehner said. "How much progress have we made? Some."

The bill was originally expected on the floor prior to the July Fourth recess but ran into trouble among Republican conservatives.

In the meantime, Bob Bauer has written against the bailout amendment that I support. I don't find Bob's arguments persuasive, in large part because he does not address the substantive merits of the proposal. (He is more concerned about the politics of it all: "The time to vote, however, has come, and what is before the Congress is superior to a last-minute, highly politicized and scattershot amendment process justified by the Congressional sponsors as an answer to constitutional concerns of entirely speculative character.")

-- 
Rick Hasen
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA  90015-1211
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