People of faith to demand Congress restore the Voting Rights Act

Two years ago, the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted a key protection of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). This Thursday, June 25, we will be joining the interfaith community – along with hundreds of concerned Americans–for a rally in Roanoke, Virginia to call on our leaders to repair the VRA. It is time to restore protections and ensure voting rights for all Americans. If we are to overcome the persistent mistrust and systematic persecution that undermines the social fabric of our communities – made all the more evident by last week’s tragic hate shooting in Charleston, S.C. – we must ensure all Americans voices count in the political process. 

The Voting Rights Act was passed 50 years ago and has helped transform our nation into a more equal democracy by ending literacy tests, poll taxes, and other tactics designed to keep minority voters away from the ballot box. Moral leaders have historically been at the forefront of all major struggles for social change. The struggle for voting rights – the right to express oneself at the ballot box, regardless of race, gender, or class – has been no different. Securing broad voting rights is a crucial part of broader efforts to prevail over the pernicious force of racism.

{mosads}In the 1950s and 1960s, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference called on clergy of all faiths to join them as they fought segregation and demanded equality. There are countless examples of the faith community’s courage and leadership during this time. A Unitarian Universalist minister and pastor, James Reeb, was murdered in Selma, Alabama by white segregationists, for his activism. In St. Augustine, more than a dozen Reform Jewish leaders were arrested with Dr. King for protesting segregation. Religious leadership, especially by black clergy, is a major reason for the victories of the civil rights movement.

Our motivation to promote voting rights comes from high sources: the Bible’s first chapter reminds us that we are all “created in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). Not only are we equal in God’s eyes, but in the eyes of the law. As God commands, “You shall have one law for the stranger and the citizen alike: for I Adonai am your God” (Leviticus 24:22). For these reasons, our mentors and colleagues marched in the 1960s – the same reasons we are rallying today. They believed then, and we believe now, that protecting voting rights for all people is a deeply religious, and moral, issue.

The VRA also helps fight more discrete – but no less dangerous – methods of voting discrimination, such as unfair redistricting plans, restrictive voter ID laws, elimination of early voting opportunities, and ill-advised polling place changes. The resurgence of laws to limit early voting and increase barriers to voting threatens the very heart of our democracy – equality at the ballot box. Despite public outcry over the Shelby decision and a bipartisan effort to restore the VRA, Congress has failed to act.

Why Roanoke? Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. represents that city. Goodlatte has the opportunity to protect voters in Virginia and across the country from discrimination by advancing bipartisan legislation out of his committee to restore the VRA’s crucial provisions. Our rally will tell Goodlatte and Congress as a whole that they can no longer sweep this issue under the rug. Unless Congress acts, voters are more at risk in the 2016 election than in any other presidential election in more than 50 years. 

The VRA and its reauthorizations passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities and were signed by presidents of both parties. By failing to restore the vital protections of the VRA, today’s Congress has shown that it values politics and partisanship over the fundamental right embedded in our Constitution and our democracy.

This August will mark the 50^th anniversary of the VRA. We pray that by this anniversary we will be able to celebrate progress that Congress has made to protect and restore voting rights.

Laser is the deputy director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.