Struggling for Voting Rights at Tipping Point: Congress Needs to Act Now
Published in Siliconeer.com on
Speakers provided updates, particularly for ethnic voters, and where the struggle goes from here
At an Ethnic Media Services briefing, co-hosted with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Nov. 5, speakers – Wade Henderson, Interim President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the oldest civil rights coalition in the U.S.; John C. Yang, Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC); Jacqueline De Leon, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund; and Sean Morales-Doyle, Acting Director for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice – discussed struggle to safeguard voting rights, perhaps the most pressing civil rights issue of the moment. On Nov. 3, Republicans used the filibuster to block debate over the John L. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act even as 19 Republican-led states have passed restrictive new voting laws. Speakers updated us on the stakes, particularly for ethnic voters, and where the struggle goes from here, focusing still on the senate looking to the courts reforming the filibuster.