A long way for voting rights in America

A long way for voting rights in America
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(November, 2012)
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Table of contents
 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc341522529"
Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc341522529 \h
3
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History of voting rights  PAGEREF _Toc341522531 \h
3
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Major cases  PAGEREF _Toc341522533 \h
5
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i. The Baker verse Carr case of 1962  PAGEREF _Toc341522534 \h
5
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ii. The Bush Verse Gore case of 2000  PAGEREF _Toc341522535 \h
7
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iii. The Johnson Verses DeGrandy case of 1994  PAGEREF _Toc341522536 \h
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The way forward  PAGEREF _Toc341522537 \h
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Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc341522540 \h
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2010).  PAGEREF _Toc341522541 \h
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References  PAGEREF _Toc341522542 \h
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Introduction
Democracy is built on the foundations of voting. America has been the champion of democracy over the years and we have seen her imposing a lot of sanctions on the countries that do not respect humanity and their rights. It is also known to be the mother of democracy today. However, throughout American history we have seen essential American people voices on this important human right. The women, the young citizens and African American people stood still and risked their lives for the sake of acquiring this fundamental human right. In the election of 2008 a record was set when the voter turnover of the blacks and whites almost closed the gap that has been there for centuries (Neubauer & Meinhold, 2010).
History of voting rights
It is true that for any American who was born after the 1960s revolution may have hard time to believe that it was hard work for the American at that time to stand for their rights. In some areas like Alabama and most of the southern parts of American hostility and violence was everywhere. It is within record that the Eugene Connor, the police commissioner of Birmingham ordered the police to open fire hoses on the aggressive youth who never retreated back; they where to see a free American nation, nothing more nothing less. In the same town a bomb was planted in a church that had the people who were crying for the vote and four children were killed including 11 year old good friend by then of the former secretary of state, Condolence Rice (Menez & Vile, 2003).
These incidents shocked the entire world; the intimidating of the black people and the killing of the innocent children. The in 1965 the civil society led my great American people like Martin Luther king junior and other were all over the streets demanding what belonged to them; their right to vote. Although they had staged a peaceful demonstration they were met by a strong force from the government the used violence against them. Congressman Lewis can testify the kind of beatings he received from the authorities. The people never gave up, thanks to the media who brought these events to the living rooms of the fellow Americans. This led to the president by then Johnson to call for a congress session and they passed the voting rights act (Mersky & Tate, 2004).
This legislation was major landmark for the American people. Then the president directed the attorney general to file suits against the Mississippi poll tax. For ten years from that enactment the registration was increasing rapidly year after year. Since then changes have been happening with the Supreme Court giving their interpretations. For instance in 1969, all voting changes in covered jurisdictions - including redistricting and reapportionment - were in reference to Section 5 preclearance; in addition the supreme court in 1974 ruled that the 14th Amendment prohibited "vote dilution." In reference to this determination the range of objections the Voting Section could raise (Martin, 2010).
However, the court gave the attained achievement a big bowl in 1980. In the city of mobile V. Bolden the court ruled that in order to demonstrate voting discrimination under section 2 the victim had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process under question was from about by discriminatory purpose. This limited the far the people could object the election process. This did not last long as in 1982 the congress overturned that ruling and they confirmed that there was no need of giving that kind of evidence. This released the people’s rights again. The congress however said, a Section 2 violation occurs if a court brings to a close that a voting practice has the consequence of discriminating against minority voters, whether or not it was motivated by bias (Kermit & Ely, 2011).
As a result of the section 5 preclearance requirement and the voting sections court case under section 2 limited the extend discrimination could occur on the minority groups in United States. The 1980s and 1990s census the participation of minority in voting process yielded a major ground. This led to the increase of the number of representatives in congress and state houses across the counties who were blacks or Latino. Even if these achievements have been there we have had other rulings that the Supreme Court have either upheld or overturned the rulings of the immediate courts. This paper will only outline three major ones in the American history. They include: the case between baker and Carr, George Bush and Gore and finally Johnson v. DeGrandy of the year 1994 (Higginbotham, 1998).
Major cases
The Baker verse Carr case of 1962
Baker, a resident of Tennessee had filed a case in the Supreme Court against Mr. Carr who was the secretary of state in Tennessee. This great American was of the view that the election in that state had to be postponed until when the state will be ready to fulfill its duty to reapportion its legislative district. The state had not done this for the last 60 years and that was very long according to Mr. Baker. The states constitution requirement was that a review was to be done in every ten year and Baker based his case on the 14th amendment of equal’s protection clause. To argue his case Baker had the view that the value of his vote had been diluted by the urban migration hence the necessity of the review to give a proper balance to all voters (Grofman, 1992).
Having sort an intervention in the district court who gave him a shocking respond by dismissing his case he went ahead to the Supreme Court that overturned the district ruling. The ruling proved that the case was genuine since the issued raised were justifiable under the constitution and remanded. It was therefore fit for Mr. Baker to sue the secretary of state, Mr. Carr and not even that they found out that the courts were acting inappropriately to deny people their rights; referring to Cole grove who had heard the case at the district level. A major question before the Court was the issue of the political question doctrine, by which the district court and the Cole grove court had ruled issues involving reapportionment as non justifiable. The Supreme Court did wonders in reversing the ruling on the bases that the claims were copy of the Guaranty clause of Article IV, but rather touching on amendment 14. They were on the opinion that since the issue was improper representation of the votes which the court could actually ascertain the case had ground to be heard and determined (Zihala, 2005).
This case was a major foundation for the other citizen who felt they needed to be heard. It opened a leeway to have a review of the redistricting process and bringing a lot discomfort to many who were not for change. As a result the one person one vote principle was adapted. Within two years after that ruling 26 states had realigned themselves with the changes, three under court-drawn plans, many more under judicial pressure. By 1966 that number rose to 46 states (Tucker, 2000).
It is true that there have been some enforcement to enhance the voting rights after his ruling which is a plus for the country. No wonder America has been the role model in this area among the developing countries of the world. May be to single out section 203 and 4(f)(4) that seeks to ensure minority language provisions. There have been several cases that have come up dealing with African American, Asian American, Hispanics, and naïve Americans. Not forgetting that the congress have done fairly well by adding the Motor bill 15 in 1993 to enhance the rights of individuals in voting rights. Its main obligation has been to ensure that the states pursue voter rolls as opposed to registration at social services agencies (Timothy, 2001).
This is not enough for this beautiful country especially in the 21st century. More pressure should be exerted to the government through the courts and the congress to ensure more is done. Things have changed now and the need for new approaches and tracts is required to push America to the next level. The mission of ensuring political equality is quite excellent but the approaches need to be modernized. America is great and his people should portray its greatness in their entire actions for the world to follow (Susan, 2012).
The Bush Verse Gore case of 2000
Secondly, it is the famous case between the former US president, George W. bush and his competitor Al Gore, the democratic challenger in 2000. The whole world was watching, hoping America will not fall, others were praying because to them without America they are doomed. Many people started to celebrate and went to their bedrooms happy people thinking the democratic candidate had won, only to be surprised the next morning. The next morning Mr. Bush was declared the winner of the election and to be fair enough they were too close to determine (Stoner, 1995).
Different states were up to be grabbed but Florida was the centre of the battle. Remember Bush young brother, Jeb, was the governor here. Here the votes were so close such that one was unable to rule out some technical hiccups. What followed was not good at all. For instance, Brush fires exploded in several precincts where the contenders’ surrogates traded allegations about diverse impropriety. Recounts were started, then stopped as Republicans and Democrats quarreled over what standards to apply. It was more than a little hectic (Slotnick, 1999).
To put a record, the Supreme Court stepped into the dispute three times. Two of the cases are referred as Bush verse Gore. The first case was between Bush and the Palm Beach County campaigning Board. There were hopes that the court will be able to able to intervene the whole mess by ensuring a stop to the Florida Supreme Court's decision to extend the time for certifying the vote past the period set by state law. The humiliated justices sent the case back down to the Florida Supreme Court, initiating the lower court to rewrite its opinion. This was required to ensure that there was no conflict between...