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.
