Justice Department Goes After Texas’s Discriminatory Voting Laws

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.

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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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