[Lamplighter]

It's not over til the fat lady sings...


NY Times
July 25, 2013
U.S. Asks Court to Limit Texas on Ballot Rules
<snip>

The new move by the Justice Department relies on a part
of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court left untouched in the Shelby County case.
The court struck down the coverage formula in Section 4 of the law,
which had identified places subject to the preclearance requirement based on 40-year-old data.
The court suggested that Congress remained free to enact a new coverage formula
based on contemporary data, but most analysts say that is unlikely.

Striking down the law’s coverage formula effectively guts Section 5 of the law,
which requires permission from federal authorities before covered jurisdictions may change voting procedures.


The move by the Justice Department on Thursday relies on a different part of the law,
Section 3, which allows the federal government to get to largely
the same place by a different route, called “bail-in.”
If the department can show that given jurisdictions have committed constitutional violations,
federal courts may impose federal oversight on those places in a piecemeal fashion.

Lawyers for minority groups have already asked a court in Texas to return the state to federal oversight.
The Justice Department’s action — filing a “statement of interest” in that case —
will bring the weight of the federal government behind those efforts.
<snip>