Task
Answer the following questions in your notebook using the corresponding websites.
Process
- What does the Constitution say about who regulates voting? (See Article I, Section 2, Clause 1, U.S. Constitution). What do the following Amendments to the Constitution say about voting? The 12th, 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th amendments (ProCon.org, http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000649)
- How have some states, particularly in the South, placed barriers to voting? (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_literacy.html)
- How did the 1965 Voting Rights Act help African Americans overcome legal barriers that prevented them from voting in some state and local elections? (History.com http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement/videos/voting-rights-bill, LBJ speech before Congress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcBL9pZ9Znw, key excerpts from the speech http://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/newshour/extra/app/uploads/2013/11/johnsonspeech.pdf and Impact of the Voting Rights Act https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/immediate-impact.html)
- Describe the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby v. Holder and explain how it overturned a key provision in the Voting Rights Act. Review the dissenting opinion. (Oyez https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-96, FRONTLINE http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/with-voting-rights-act-out-states-push-voter-id-laws/)
- What are voting ID laws and what is the controversy that surrounds them? (FRONTLINE: Voter ID Laws http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/fln33-soc-voterfraud/wgbh-frontline-why-voter-id-laws-arent-really-about-fraud/, and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/why-doesnt-everybody-have-a-voter-id/) How have some federal courts responded to these voter ID laws? (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/02/488392765/as-november-approaches-courts-deal-series-of-blows-to-voter-id-laws)