Voting Rights Act provisions expiring - Help me decipher meaning of this!

[meganmonkey]

Voting Activists Warn of 'Trojan Horse'

By JEFFREY McMURRAY
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; 6:47 PM

WASHINGTON -- Key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act are set to expire soon, but staunch supporters warned Tuesday that a permanent extension could reverse many of the law's gains for minorities.

Some lawmakers may try to make permanent certain provisions that expire in 2007 in an attempt to torpedo the act, said Theodore Shaw, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Legal Defense Fund. Although Shaw acknowledged a permanent or nationwide approach may seem wise, he called it a "Trojan horse."

"If they are permanent, it is a trap," Shaw said. "They will be struck down as illegal and unconstitutional."

One part of the act set to expire is the provision that states with a history of racial discrimination _ mostly in the South _ must get federal government approval before changing their voting laws or district lines. Shaw said judges might decide Congress can't separate jurisdictions based on race issues without an occasional review of whether that separation remains necessary. <snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

(thanks to struggle4progress for posting this in LBN)

[Melissa G]

1. sounds like they could tear in down through the courts state by state.

Then we would have to try to piece it back together state by state esp in the south with repub controlled legislatures..