Voting Rights Act

Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill making the state the second after Arizona to require voters to prove their citizenship. Critics say that would disenfranchise many poor, elderly and minority residents. To take effect, the law needs clearance from the U.S. Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act. All who registered to vote would have to provide proof, such as a U.S. passport or naturalization documents.

Recall petitions need to be printed only in English, even when some voters are not proficient in the language, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The federal Voting Rights Act requires ballots and other government-produced election material to be published in other languages if more than 5% of the voters speak a different language. But in a case involving the Santa Ana Unified School District, the U.S.

One day before President Bush addresses the NAACP for the first time during his presidency, two Democratic senators Wednesday urged those attending the meeting to hold the administration accountable for renewing -- and enforcing -- the Voting Rights Act. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois warned NAACP delegates to be cautious of any civil rights promises Bush offers when speaking to the group today.

The U.S. Supreme Court majority has once again shown its myopia when it comes to civil rights protections. With its decision earlier this week, six justices--including the only black, Clarence Thomas--have come up with an interpretation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that severely narrows the protections of the law.

The Justice Department has decided to allow the strictest enforcement of the Voting Rights Act by giving its attorneys broader authority to veto planned voting changes that would have a discriminatory result, regardless of intent, in thousands of communities, sources said. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that use of the so-called results test in judging such changes was approved by Assistant Atty. Gen.