Antonin Scalia’s recent comment to do with a “racial entitlement” in the context of Sec. 5 of the (1965) Voting Rights Act is laughable and shows him to be the activist punk and racist bigot many of us on the Hard Left always believed him to be. By his use of such a disgusting term, in fact, he showed he knows nothing of the Constitution or what incepted the law in the first place. Nor has he one single clue of why the Act was extended by the Senate (by a 98-0) vote in 2006. Scalia to me has always been a vile conservo bigot who really has no business on the Court, any more than Clarence Thomas (who has been totally mute on the issue of the (1965) Voting Rights Act – despite being a black man who benefited from it) who was only appointed by Bush Sr. as a token minority ploy, but who even then was ranked lower – far lower- than any other candidates.
As Melissa Harris- Perry observed this morning, Section 5 of the Voting Rights act does not confer any “entitlements” but rather activates rights ALREADY inherent in the Constitution but denied to black voters in the Jim Crow South. Also, the Constitution itself did make provisions to treat the insurrectionist Confederate states differently because of the degree to which they based their whole economy on “chattel bondage” (Which the rich party GOOPrs now want to return us to as they cut away every social support as an “entitlement”)
Harris -Perry's articulate segment showed clearly why it would be a travesty to repeal the provisions of Sec. 5, especially as they regard to ANY and ALL states in the former Confederacy, never mind what anomalies occur in Pennsylvania or Massachusetts (which those minority voters have much more opportunity to sue to overturn, ie as occurred with proposed Voter ID laws in PA in the 2012 election). In the South, if Sec. 5 is overturned, look for blacks to be singled out or targeted if they attempt to pursue court cases to secure their franchise.
The Voting Rights Act has been momentous, but clearly it would be more so for any of us living at the time of all the racial upheaval in the South, and who beheld the real time footage from Selma and Birmingham. For myself, I still recall the bloodied heads of Loyola University students (and CORE, Congress of Racial Equality) members returning from Mississippi in 1964-65 after trying to register black voters. They had been set upon with billy clubs as well as dogs. No one who lived then wants to see a return to those days, or even a less revolting version where Voter ID requirements are used as poll taxes.
That Scalia is an activist judge on the Court is beyond dispute. He has shown himself to be over and over, though he often rants on against "judicial activism". But his form is the one that is most toxic to the principles of the Constitution since it seeks - by strawman verbiage and non sequitur - to overthrow already established constitutional protections.
To read more on Scalia's detestable activism don't take my word! Check out this article from the center-right (not left!) Economist:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/02/voting-rights-act
Hopefully, the swing vote on the court - Anthony Kennedy - will side with reason this time and not allow this abomination of minority rights to happen, especially as we are already on the verge of major repeals of social insurance and health protections-investment thanks to the Tea Pea Nazis!
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