Justice Department Goes After Texas’s Discriminatory Voting Laws
  • July 26, 2013

Justice Department Goes After Texas’s Discriminatory Voting Laws

Justice Department Goes After Texas’s Discriminatory Voting Laws

The federal government announced it would ask a federal court in Texas to subject the state to a pre-clearance regime whenever the tries to change voting laws and practices.

Chris Hayes
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After the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, conservative legislatures from North Carolina to Texas rejoiced by enacting a range of discriminatory measures. But was it too early to celebrate? This morning, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department would be using Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act—a section that remains intact after the Supreme Court’s decision—to ask a federal court in Texas to subject the state to a pre-clearance regime whenever the state tries to change voting laws and practices.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes is joined by Congressman Marc Veasey (D-Texas) and Julie Fernandes, senior policy analyst with Open Society Institute, to try to figure out what the federal government can do to combat Texas’ new voter suppression laws.

—Jake Scobey-Thal

Ari Berman on the country’s worst voting law yet.

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