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Legal Defense Fund @NAACP_LDF
, 7 tweets, 6 min read Read on Twitter
On this fifth anniversary of the #ShelbyCountyvHolder decision and today's ruling in #AbbottvPerez—another voting rights decision that comes at a "serious cost" to our democracy—take some time to read our "Democracy Diminished" report: bit.ly/2KiTaVD. #RestoreTheVote
In the #ShelbyCountyvHolder decision, #SCOTUS gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 5 acted as a crucial checkpoint for democracy, "stopping discriminatory voting laws before any election." #RestoreTheVote nytimes.com/2017/12/11/opi…
Since #ShelbyCountyvHolder, LDF has been monitoring state & local threats to voting, paying close attention to the states & localities that previously had to seek pre-approval of any voting changes as had been required by a fully-functioning #VRA. #RestoreTheVote
In the #ShelbyCountyvHolder ruling’s aftermath, more than two dozen states have passed #votersuppression laws that make it harder to vote and which would've been blocked by a fully-functioning Voting Rights Act. #RestoreTheVote
The Shelby decision left states like AL, TX & NC free to test the limits of voter suppression. In fact, the day after the decision, North Carolina lawmakers began working on voter suppression measures that “targete[ed] African Americans with almost surgical precision.”
Today’s decision in #AbbottvPerez, #SCOTUS permitted TX to use electoral maps tainted w/racial discrimination. The ruling is proof positive that the Shelby decision left voters of color less protected from voting discrimination. Read our statement here: bit.ly/2MYo4kC.
We remain vigilant of discriminatory voting changes, but until the Voting Rights Act is restored to its full strength, we must all play a vigilant role in protecting our democracy from voting discrimination.

Read LDF’s Democracy Diminished report here: bit.ly/2KiTaVD.
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More from @NAACP_LDF see all

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Lynching is a message crime where the very public murders of Black Americans terrorized communities across the nation in the 20th century.

Today Congress passed a bill which makes lynching a hate crime. Watch highlights from @eji_org's summit for the opening of @MemPeaceJustice.
It is not an accident that many do not know about the horrific and very public murders of Black Americans. @Sifill_LDF recalls how a local newspaper did not cover a lynching that happened in front 500 people “for the simple reason that everyone [knew] what happened.”
The legacy of lynching is the foundation of the Black community's relationship with our criminal justice system. Today there is one key difference, “now you cannot unsee Walter Scott running through the park being shot or Eric Garner being choked to death to death by the #NYPD.”
Read 6 tweets
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For months, we've consistently cautioned that the Senate must #PressPause on considering President Trump's SCOTUS nominee until the Special Counsel's investigation ends.
LDF President and Director-Counsel @Sifill_LDF penned an op-ed on our country’s commitment to equal justice under the law and why "it is imperative that the process to replace [Justice Kennedy] not be rushed." #WhatsAtStake #ScotusPick #SCOTUSnominee politico.com/magazine/story…
Read 8 tweets
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Our country benefits when every individual has a fair shot to climb up the ladder to opportunity. Prior experiments have demonstrated that race-neutral admissions alone are insufficient to achieve meaningful diversity and opportunity on college campuses. psmag.com/education/can-…
California banned the consideration of race in college admissions, the percentage of African-American admitted freshmen dropped by about half at California’s flagship schools, UCLA and UC Berkeley. ppic.org/blog/race-and-…
After Michigan’s ban, the University of Michigan saw the percentage of enrolled African-American undergraduate students declined by about a third from 2006 with the number hovering around 4.5% for the past five years.
Read 4 tweets

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#Khashoggi Case Thread: I am going to ‘pin’ this post to use it as an ‘Info Thread’ on the #Khashoggi Case. I am in #Turkey. I’ve been following the case closely and with access to sources & experts here. This is a very ‘sensitive’ criminal case due to ‘Diplomatic Booby Traps’!!!
The Evidence Obtained Outside Cameras will not show any evidence of ‘tempering’ but other than license plates of dozens of diplomatic cars (Many with tinted windows-large trunks) with related time stamp, drivers Info, model/year: Nothing.
#Turkish Intel-Investigative Bodies also have the list of all Diplomatic & Private Saudi & “other significant’ Planes in #Turkey for the period of ‘interest.’ Many of the Target airports have their own security cameras & related evidence.
Read 335 tweets
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1) It’s just another day in the Swamp.

Who is free to speak here?

It’s coffee time.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018.
2) Freedom of speech is fundamental to #democracy.

I read this the other day:

The remedy for offensive speech...is more speech.
3) Freedom of speech is so precious to our Nation. It is the antidote to tyranny.

Without it we are all reduced to slaves.
Read 51 tweets
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RT! READ!

Winning Is Not Enough | by Paul Glastris

Democrats are focused on taking back power—but our democracy depends on them keeping it. To do that, they have to start thinking differently.

#democracy #Democrats #progressives #liberals #DemsWork4USA
washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/july-…
To save our democracy, Democrats need to win big. They not only have to beat Donald Trump in 2020, but also have to achieve majorities in the House and Senate that are big and stable enough to survive the 2022 midterms.
Doing that will require winning back states and districts that they lost in 2014 and 2016, taking others that have long been in GOP hands, and governing in a way that keeps those states and districts from turning red again.

Read 5 tweets
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On this Independence Day, when we celebrate the U.S. as a democracy and as we await a Scalia-like successor to Justice Kennedy to be nominated for #SCOTUS, some thoughts on how the Court could set the cause of voting rights back significantly in the years to come: /1
The first way that the Court can negatively affect voting rights is by holding that democracy-enhancing laws like the Voting Rights Act or campaign contribution limits are unconstitutional. The second way is by upholding state laws making it harder to register and vote. /2
In the first category, at the top of my list is that #SCOTUS with a fifth hard conservative on race could either hold that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is an unconstitutional racial classification or interpret it so weekly it dies death by 1,000 cuts /3
Read 24 tweets
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Black babies in the US are twice as likely to die before their first birthday as white babies.

Since I learned this ugly statistic, and realized it touched my own family, I’ve been wondering:

How has this been true for so long? How do we fix it?

Here's what I found 👇
While I was researching & reporting, this document from 1984 became my best friend.

I could not believe that there were such similar conversations taking place at the federal level more than 30 years ago. (Shoutout to central @LAPublicLibrary where I first found it!)
It was shocking to see exchanges like this one between Congressman Mickey Leland of Texas and Edward Brandt, assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services
Read 15 tweets
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After 70 years of imperial/neoliberal indoctrination the web of lies is so obviously absurde (9/11, Skripal, WH = ISIS, etc.), that it is dissoluting. The empathetic humanity connects, closes ranks and sends their eternal psychopathic rulers and their lackeys into nowhere land.
The "evil empire" is a lifelong three year old child. I certainly loved my children at that age too, however only because they created not only a surreal mess, but also made steady progress.

A great documentary about psychopathy and society:
The elite invented "democracy" to protect them from the empathetic people. The media are their means for misleading the people sedated by "democracy". This is definitely a bad thing since the people have become educated and the elite almost totally insane.
Read 209 tweets

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