The Voting Rights Act has been hailed as an indispensable tool for exapanding the voting franchise. Now, self-styled "civil rights" groups are using it to prevent citizens from voting. How pathetically low has the black political establishment fallen?

At issue is a last-ditch effort by a group trying to prevent citizens from voting on an amendment to the Michigan constitution. Styled after similar campaigns in California and Washington, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative would outlaw the use of racial preferences by state agencies and universities.

Just a few weeks before the deadline for Proposal 2 to get onto the state ballot, the "Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary" (BAMN, loosely) argued that the signature gathering process used to qualify the referendum was tainted by racially targeted fraud...

BAMN filed a new lawsuit in federal court. Although the purpose of the Voting Rights Act is to eliminate procedures that diminish participation in elections because of race, BAMN asked the courts to rule that states must invent new procedures: Namely, they must strike black participation whenever officials have an inkling some blacks might have been confused about what they were doing.

It's hard to think of a more perverse reading of the law. Imagine if officials of Southern states had ever conducted after-the-fact telephone campaigns to make sure black voters understood what they were voting for? Or tried to filter black votes by looking into conversations they might have had in the moments before they entered the voting booth?

Aside from this extremist BAMN group trying to take away from voters the right to choose, there is, naturally, the role of another liberal activist judge who went along with them.

Judge Tarnow gave himself the authority, even the duty, to "serve as a 'referee'" for all kinds of state political "processes"--not just elections...

Without the benefit of even a short trial, Judge Tarnow made the incendiary finding that "evidence overwhelmingly favors a finding that [petition sponsors] engaged in voter fraud" and that state officials had exhibited "an almost complete institutional indifference."

Here's another example of a liberal group using the courts to get what they cannot persuade voters to give. This time, however, they're trying to take away the right to vote from Michigan citizens. What a travesty.

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.gopbloggers.org/mt/majority.cgi/4117

---

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

What is the Vice-President's last name?

(NOTE: You must get this correct, otherwise, your comment will be rejected.)

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)