21st Century US laws that restrict voter turnout among minorities and
people with limited incomes.
In Shelby County v. Holder, 2013, the US Supreme Court declared parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 unconstitutional in a 5-4 decision. The majority
opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. Only justices appointed by Republican presidents voted to strike down the law.
Chief Justice Roberts later wrote in McCutcheon: There is no right more basic in our
democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.
McCutcheon removed aggregate spending limits on campaign contributions.
Linda Greenhouse @ NY Times noted: Roberts's subject then was the right to spend money in
politics, not the right to vote. If
people conclude that the current Supreme Court majority cares more about the first than the second — surely a logical inference — the court
will have entered a dangerous place.
After Shelby, many states with a history of poll bias - previously ended by the Voting Rights Act - passed laws designed to suppress voter turnout. These laws include so-called Voter ID laws, reductions in early voting, and restricting acceptable ID to ID more often held by Republicans - for example, Texas polls accept
gun licenses, but not state
college ID.
In honor of Chief Justice John Roberts opinion in Shelby, and the similarity of laws that followed to Jim
Crow laws, these laws are now known as John Roberts Laws, aka Voter Suppression Laws or the Republican Poll.
Republicans were embarrassed by undemocratically winning a gerrymandered House majority while losing the popular vote for it in an
un-American fashion, so they declared a fake mandate and passed a bunch of John Roberts Laws to punish and disenfranchise the
people who voted against them.
