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Key terms 10.1: suffrage, franchise, electorate, disenfranchised, poll tax, gerrymandering, Martin Luther King Jr, injunction, Selma, Alabama, Lyndon B. Johnson, preclearance, John Roberts
Key Terms 10.2: aliens, transients, registration, purging, poll books
I can identify todays limitations on voting and assess if the limitations are necessary or not.
Voter ID
Age Restrictions
Felons
Voter Registration
20 20 October 10, 2008_kids are dumb.mp4What are five limitations on voting today?
Should the United States adopt a national election system similar to Canada’s?
Does voter ID prevent fraud or prevent voting?
Big QuestionS
Big QuestionS
Topic 10.1
Though he opposed forced segregation, Republican 1964 presidential candidate, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, voted against the bill, remarking, "You can't legislate morality." Goldwater had supported previous attempts to pass civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960 as well as the 24th Amendment outlawing the poll tax. He also was a lifetime member of the NAACP. He stated that the reason for his opposition to the 1964 bill was Titles II and VII, which both dealt with employment, making him infer that the law would end in the government dictating hiring and firing policy for millions of Americans. In his opinion, this violated individual liberty and states' rights.
(a) How would you respond to Goldwater’s argument? Address his points on legislating morality, individual liberty, and states rights.
(b)How does Federalism and the 10th Amendment relate to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965?
Topic 10.2
In the case Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court eliminated the preclearance requirement listed in the Voting Rights Act.
Chief Justice John Robert’s stated “During the Freedom Summer of 1964 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, three men were murdered while working in the area to register African-American voters. On Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama in 1965, police beat and used tear gas on hundreds marching in support of enfranchising African-Americans. Today, both Philadelphia and Mississippi and Selma, Alabama have African-Americans mayors…Our country has changed, it has wiped away so much of its racist past…[the Voting Rights Act[ employed extraordinary measures to address an extraordinary problem [and that in the 40 years since] voting tests were abolished, disparities in voter registration and turnout due to race were erased, and African-Americans attained political office in record numbers. Yet the coverage formula that Congress reauthorized in 2006 ignores these developments, keeping the focus on decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs.”
A)Identify why does Justice Roberts believe there is no need for preclearance?
B)Describe 3 limitations that exist in voting today. Do you consider these “extraordinary problems” that require government action?
C)What voter qualifications should exist today, if any?
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