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Show DAILY April 30, 2009 Thursday, HERALD A3 House bill would give I'l J '"'( n I!'1' I ! gays new protections I. f ; ill WASHINGTON i . i.l S B 2 f I. - '' . 0NAACP ! - Says..... ACTli 'KEEP THE ALEX ) 4 Press BRANDONAssociated Washington on Wednesday. Voting rights law sees skepticism at high court Mark Sherman ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON The Supreme Court's conservative justices led a sustained attack Wednesday on a key element of the Voting Rights Act, quese bastioning whether tions of segregation still should be held to account for past discrimination. The justices who were skeptical of that part of the voting rights law included Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose views are likely to prevail on the closely divided court. He tends to side with his more conservative colleagues on matters of one-tim- race. On the other side, the liberal justices defended Congress' decision to keep the law in place to prevent ongoing discriminatioa The tenor of the quick-pace- d argument suggested that there could be a court majority to strike down the provision of the voting rights law that has been the Justice Department's main enforcement tool against discriminatory changes in voting since the law was enacted in 1965. It opened elections to millions of blacks and other minorities. The law requires all or parts of 16 states, mainly in the South, with a history of discrimination in voting to get approval in advance of making changes in the way elections are conducted. The idea behind it is to prevent discriminatory measures from being put in place. The court is being asked by a small Texas utility district to strike down the extension as an unconstitutional intrusion into the domain of state and local governments that have made substantial progress since the era of Jim Crow and government sponsored discriminatioa Kennedy acknowledged that the provision has been successful in rooting out discrimination in voting over the past 44 years. But times have changed, he said, questioning Congress' judgment in 2006 that it was needed for another 25 years. "Democracy was a shambles," Kennedy said of the era when the law first was enact- states not required to submit election changes fare worse than those with a history of discrimination. The court's liberal justices said Congress pointed out that instances of voting discriminaed. "That's not true anymore." tion occur more often in the When Justice Department states covered by the portion lawyer Neal Katyal pointed out of the voting rights law that is under challenge. that the high court has upheld "I don't understand with a previous extensions of the law, Justice Antonin Scalia dismis-sivel- y record like that how you can maintain ... that things have replied, "A long time radically changed," Justice Daago." At another point, Chief Jusvid Souter said, acknowledging that there has been progress. tice John Roberts asked, "At Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg what point does that history ... n referred to the stop justifying action with rediscrimination" that Conspect to some jurisdictions?" Katyal did not specif ically gress was aiming to stop. "You start with the blatant overt disanswer that question. But he crimination, and then in time said, "After 16,000 pages of testimony, 21 different hearings people recognize ... that won't over months, Congress looked go any more, so the discriminaat the evidence and determined tion becomes more subtle, less that their work was not done." easy to smoke out," Ginsburg said. "But it doesn't go from Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito also noted that by some blatant overt discrimination to measures of racial disparity, everything is equal." te5( Member limber FD4C to start one? Discover why so many Utah County use Western Community Bank. .businesses With every capability you need, ready to serve. Call 222-900- 6. we stand lfl y Bush. President Barack Obama, in contrast, urged support, saying it would "enhance civil rights protections, while also protecting our freedom of speech and association." Obama called for passage in the Senate, where Sen. Edis ward M. Kennedy, the chief sponsor. The House bill added protections based on sexual orien "I wonder if our friends on the other side of the aisle would be singing the same offensive tune if we were talking about hate crimes based on race or religion," she said, referring to Republican opponents. "It seems to me it is the category of individuals that they are offended by, rather than the fact that we have hate crimes laws at all." She then recounted cases where gay people were victims of violence. Answering those who said the protections were not needed, Frank quoted Chico Marx, one of the Marx Brothers comedy team, from the movie "Duck Soup": "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?' Current law only permits federal prosecutions against crimes based on race, religion, color or national origin and only when the victims are engaged in federally protected activity such as voting. Forty five states have hate crime laws, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. 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