Democrats called the legislation the Voting Rights Advancement Act by John Lewis after the civil rights icon and member of Congress Georgia who died last year.
“John knew that the fight for justice never really ends,” tweeted Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama. “Every generation has to fight and fight again to preserve the progress of the past and move it forward. Now it’s our turn.”
The bill would reinstate an aspect of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that allowed the Department of Justice to block certain jurisdictions with a history of electoral discrimination to change their voting rules, after conservative Supreme Court judges ruled in 2013 on Shelby County v. the formula used was obsolete. Attorney General Merrick Garland recently wrote in The Washington Post that the “preclarification” provision of the Voting Rights Act was “hugely effective” and led to “thousands of discriminatory voting changes that would have reduced voting rights by millions.” of citizens in large and small jurisdictions “. “
The bill also responds to this year’s Supreme Court decision 6-3 in Brnovich against the Democratic National Committee, which limited the ability of minorities to challenge state laws that they say are discriminatory according to a different section. of the Voting Rights Act.
The bill faces a sharp rise in the Senate, where the vast majority of Republicans oppose it, considering the legislation to be a massive federal scope for the role of states in elections. Right now, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the only Republican in the Senate who is expected to support the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in June that the bill is “unnecessary,” as “it is against the law to discriminate when voting on the basis of race,” although legislation would allow the Department of Justice block a law before it comes into force. .
McConnell said the bill “would give the Department of Justice almost total capacity to determine the voting systems of all states in America.”
This story and title have been updated to reflect additional news on Tuesday.