Pros And Cons Of The Fifteenth Amendment

In summary, the Fifteenth Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution in order to give U.S. citizens the right to vote. This means that a U.S. citizen who is eighteen years of age or older shall be allowed to vote and not discriminated against because of their race, color, or history of servitude. The Fifteenth Amendment also gives Congress the right to create laws in order to enforce the amendment. Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act in 1965 in response to the Jim Crow laws. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act says that local governments and certain states must obtain permission from the federal government before they can make any changes to their voting laws or practices. In section 4(b) there is information about which areas of the

The areas that must get preclearance are determined by a coverage formula. Shelby County is in the covered jurisdiction of Alabama and they found that it was unconstitutional to have to ask for preclearance for events that happened 40 years ago. Shelby County sued the U.S. Attorney general. In 2011, Judge John D. Bates ruled that section 5 and 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act remain the same as before the trial. In 2013, in the Supreme Court’s ruling, section 4(b) was declared unconstitutional. It was ruled that section 4(b) exceeded Congress’s rights to practice the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. It was ruled that the coverage formula went against the federalist ways and conflicted with making all states equal in power. The Court made a point that Congress must rule with facts of the present day and not

They also sued the U.S. Attorney General for having a permanent injunction against their ability to enforce laws on voting. In 2011, Judge John D. Bates ruled that there was enough evidence to continue with Section 4(b) in place. In 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit ruled that section 4(b) remained constitutional. In 2013, the Supreme Court reviewed the case, based on the question if Congress violated their Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendment rights when they reauthorized section 4(b) of the Voter’s Rights Act in