From today's
once great Washington Post Kaplan Daily:
Regarding the June 26 front-page article “Court blocks key part of Voting Rights Act”:
The Supreme Court majority in the voting rights decision has
forgotten some bitter history. In the 1890s, “redeemer” movements
managed to cancel the protections of the 15th Amendment and to
disenfranchise voters whose right to vote is protected by it. That
sweeping counter-movement, featuring literacy tests, poll taxes and
other obstructive devices, was heralded — and licensed — by a similarly
improvident Supreme Court decision. In Plessy v. Ferguson
(1896) the majority of that day held, airily, that “separate but equal”
signified racial inferiority only insofar as those disadvantaged by the
doctrine perceived it that way.
Justice John Marshall Harlan, a Kentuckian and former
Confederate officer, dissented. He knew his history and understood the
dangers and potential mischief that could take many decades to correct.
He saw that the court had fastened a “badge of inferiority” on black people.
Speaking
of the 15th Amendment, many will wonder how the Roberts court could
hold unconstitutional what the Constitution itself empowers Congress to
do by “appropriate legislation.” Is this court a better judge of what is
constitutionally appropriate than Congress? That is the paramount
question this foolish decision raises. Judicial arrogance can hardly go
further.
Edwin M. Yoder Jr., Alexandria
Well put, sir. (See also blog posting below.)
